Plymouth selected as World Cup host

It's very rare for me to touch sport on this blog but this is an item I think I should mention. Strangely, like my last story, it involves the year 2018. Should this country get to host the 2018 soccer World Cup then Plymouth Argyle's Home Park will be a venue in the competition! This is a huge accolade for the city and will help put the south west on the sporting map for once. It should be remembered too that Plymouth could be 'up in lights' prior to then if young diver Tom Daley does well at the 2012 Olympics. Although I'm not into sport myself I think it all bodes well for the major city in my two counties in this coming decade, there could be a real buzz about the place.

McClaren out and Holloway moves on

Regular readers of this blog (are you out there?) will know that I seldom comment on sport but I'll make an exception with this entry. The failure of the now ex England soccer coach Steve McClaren has unsurprisingly been the subject of much media attention in the last few days. I made the wrong decision and decided to watch what turned out to be a complete humiliation at the hands of Croatia. Congratulations then to Croatia who won by the odd goal in five, but if the winning margin had been two or three then that would be a fair reflection in my opinion. Yes England were international class, for all of about 5 seconds I would say. Beckham's pass and Crouch's finish for our first goal were worthy of a World Cup Final but as to the rest of the match we were so pathetic.

Once again our overpaid players and grossly overpaid manager were found wanting and have let the country down. This failure to qualify will have a knock on effect because when we enjoy modest success e.g. getting to the quarter finals then the excitement,hope and expectation is generally beneficial to the nation. And let's not forget that we invented football and a host of other sports that have an international following.

Of course after the debacle of the Croatia match it was obvious that McClaren had to go. So why didn't he do the right thing and immediately resign? My guess is that it was only by waiting to be sacked that he got his incredible pay off. So it would be money in other words. Now this is what absolutely nauseates me, the fact that you can be an absolute failure and then get payed a massive fortune on the back of it. I have to say here that there are many people in professional sport who get paid obscene amounts of money but am I envious? No! I recognise that is the way things are. If these people produce the goods and the market place pays them well then good luck to them. But it's when the very well paid are rewarded vast amounts of money when they totally fail (and I'm not just talking about sportsmen here) that really gets me. Yes I do get very angry about that.

At about the same time as the England International trauma local team Plymouth Argyle found itself in shock. Popular Argyle manager Ian Holloway who had been expressing his undying love for the team who are as I type seventh in the Championship has moved on to Leicester City. Money and gates seem to have been the motivation here. Fans feel very let down - expect him to get a bad reception next time Leicester visit Home Park.

Plymouth Argyle progress in the Cup

It has to be said that I'm not a sports fanatic and that sport will seldom feature in this blog. Having said that I do take an armchair interest in Plymouth Argyle. Refreshingly they do seem to be a club that works well with now a superb manager in Ian Holloway. The secret appears to be that they are a never say die side with a great work ethic and team spirit. Everyone is valued for the part they play and financially it seems that they live within their means.

So I was very pleased yesterday when they saw off Derby in the FA Cup with a 2-0 scoreline. This means that they are in the last 8 of the competition or, put it another way, two matches away from being in the final. Whether one follows sport or not it is great to have that 'feel good' thing in your area. The draw for the next round is at lunchtime on Monday - I seem to remember it used to be immediately after the Saturday ties but in those days you didn't have live Saturday evening or Sunday matches on TV.

Returning to the Derby match Plymouth were evidently very good value for their win.