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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has described Graham Poll as an embarrassment following comments the former Premier League referee made this week.

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divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/24327?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+O%27Hara+on+target+as+Tottenham+stride+towards+the+knock-out+stagesch=Footballc3=The+Guardianc4=Uefa+Cup%2CTottenham+Hotspur+%28Football%29%2CNEC+Nijmegen%2CFootball%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CChampions+League%2CPremier+Leaguec6=Stuart+Jamesc7=2008_11_27c8=1125499c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=Uefa+Cupc13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2FUefa+Cup” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpstrong/strong/ppHarry Redknapp continues to pick up the pieces from the Juande Ramos regime with the minimum of fuss. This competition threatened to bring ignominy when Tottenham suffered defeat in Udinese last month but a second successive Uefa Cup victory means that a place in the knock-out stages is now all but secured. The performance could hardly be described as polished, but Spurs need not be at their best when winning has become so ingrained in their psyche./ppThis was the seventh victory for Redknapp in nine matches, a staggering record that has brought to life a season that had been delivering humiliation and embarrassment in equal measure. A second goal would have made the final few moments more comfortable, after Jamie O’Hara’s first-half header provided them with an early advantage, but resilience and concentration are among the qualities Redknapp has instilled in Spurs since his arrival little more than a month ago./ppThis fixture might have been viewed as a distraction from the priority of ­climbing clear from the lower reaches of the ­Premier League, but Redknapp will also have realised that a trip to Nijmegen was unlikely to represent the toughest of European assignments. The NEC coach, Mario Been, noted beforehand that Tottenham’s budget is “10 or 15 times bigger” than the Dutch club’s, a chasm that suggested the visitors would prevail here without too many problems./ppIt was a theory that gained credence in the 14th minute, when O’Hara finished off a flowing move on the left flank to give Spurs the lead following a bright opening during which Redknapp’s side had largely controlled possession. NEC had seemed a little overawed ­during that period but the Dutch side roused themselves before the interval, with Heurelho Gomes, Jonathan Woodgate and Chris Gunter all making valuable contributions to prevent parity./ppGomes’s save was the most crucial, with the Brazilian diving to his right to repel Moestafa El-Kabir’s first-time shot after Woodgate had failed to deal convincingly with Peter Wisgerholf’s diagonal ball. It was a stop that the Tottenham goalkeeper would have been expected to make but, mindful of the torment that has afflicted him in the Premier League, he was entitled to feel emboldened. Gunter, reacting quickest to the rebound, ensured that the danger would pass./ppSpurs were already a goal to the good at that point, with their breakthrough arriving after David Bentley adroitly released Gareth Bale. The Wales international composed himself before sliding a low cross into the six-yard box that Fraizer ­Campbell, stretching out a leg ­instinctively, ­prodded against the crossbar. NEC might have briefly sensed a reprieve but O’Hara pounced, the midfielder heading beyond the stranded Gabor Babos./ppTottenham, manipulating the ball with such ease, had looked set to dominate for the remainder of the half but it was a ­measure of NEC’s response that more than half an hour passed before Babos was called upon again. O’Hara, who started alongside Didier Zokora in a midfield diamond that encouraged Bentley to break forward and support the front two, was once again the source of NEC’s problems, his raking 25-yard shot drawing a full-stretch save from Babos./ppRedknapp will have gone in at the interval remembering other moments, however, and it was not entirely surprising that the Spurs manager sought to tinker with his system. Having spent much of the opening 45 minutes on the periphery of the game, Bentley was redeployed to his more favoured position on the right flank while O’Hara took up a similar role on the left. Instant reward might have followed but Darren Bent’s header from Bentley’s cross was tipped over by Babos./ppNEC’s threat was no more than sporadic but there was a moment of consternation in the Spurs defence 12 minutes from time, when Woodgate perfectly timed his challenge on El-Kabir. At the opposite end, Bentley attempted to chip Babos when he should have gone for power./ppNo matter. Spurs held on with ­Redknapp — who was missing Alan Hutton, Luka Modric, Vedran Corluka, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Ledley King and Jermaine Jenas — even able to give Jon Obika, one of several young ­players on the bench, his first taste of first-team action as the clock ticked down./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/uefa”Uefa Cup/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/tottenham-hotspur”Tottenham Hotspur/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/nec-nijmegen”NEC Nijmegen/a/li/ul/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a
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Original post by Stuart James

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/37247?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+Cattermole+makes+arresting+case+for+learning+his+trade+the+hard+waych=Footballc3=The+Guardianc4=Premier+League+%28Football%29%2CWigan+Athletic+%28Football%29%2CFootballc5=Premier+Leaguec6=Daniel+Taylorc7=2008_11_22c8=1122114c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=Premier+Leaguec13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2FPremier+League” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpIn the space of 24 hours last weekend Lee Cattermole became one of the youngest captains in his club’s history, put Joey Barton out of the game for two months and then managed to get himself arrested after getting on the wrong side of Cleveland Police. One is a source of great pride, another of intense embarrassment. As for Barton, Cattermole holds out his hands to gesture his innocence and says, matter-of-factly, that he will “always go for the ball” and “never try to hurt someone deliberately”./ppFirst the good bit. Cattermole might only be keeping the captain’s armband warm at Wigan Athletic while Mario Melchiot and Emile Heskey are injured but it is still a measure of how highly his manager, Steve Bruce, regards him and why so many people in the game have identified him as an England international of the future. He is already in Middlesbrough’s record books as their youngest-ever captain, at the age of 18 years and 47 days, and has filled the same role for England’s Under-19s and just about every other youth team he has ever represented./ppWigan paid pound;3.5m for this graduate of Middlesbrough’s academy in July and Bruce has quickly recognised the 20-year-old’s leadership qualities. Fast to the ball and strong in the challenge, Cattermole has a fiercely combative edge (as Barton found out last week) and has a laddish personality that makes him a popular member of the dressing-room - the kind of guy, you could say, who would rather listen to Oasis than Blur./pp”Even if I’m not captain I’m exactly the same,” he says. “I always give my all and I don’t like losing. In fact, I hate losing. You’ve got to play with passion and spirit and I will always roll up my sleeves and give it a good go. Where it comes from, I just don’t know. But it’s there all the time, in every match.”/ppHis father, Barry, was once on Middlesbrough’s books, playing alongside Graeme Souness in the reserves, before finding his level with Billingham Synthonia. “But he was a winger not a tackler,” says Cattermole. “He tells me that he wishes he’d had some of my aggression. My brother, too, is a good footballer but, again, totally laidback. It’s just me who’s got that physical side. Why that is, I really don’t know.” /ppHe is, in his own words, a “bit mouthy”. A lot of managers like their players to be heard, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing. By his own admission, however, it has not always worked in his favour. “I’d get in trouble when I was younger,” he says. “There was a rule for the under-13s at Middlesbrough that you were never allowed to swear. If you did, the manager had to take you off as punishment. But I couldn’t stop myself. I’d just get frustrated, I guess. The manager, Dave Parnaby, would be standing on the touchline shouting: ‘Last time, Lee, one more time and you’re off.’ I’d be like: ‘Whatever!’ I just couldn’t bear it if we weren’t winning.”/ppLater, he explains, with a glint in his eye, that he “would never swear in front of a lady, just the lads” and it is easy to see why this all-action player, with his grade-two crop and battle-scarred legs, is often seen as the classic lovable rogue. On Saturday, however, he talked himself into trouble after going to a Yarm nightclub on the back of Wigan’s 2-2 draw at Newcastle United. Cattermole was arrested and ordered to pay an pound;80 fixed-penalty notice. His club have fined him and Bruce has been publicly critical about his player “going into areas you stay away from”./ppCattermole feels harshly done by. “Maybe the copper got a buzz out of arresting me,” he says pointedly. “Who knows? But the way I see it is that I did nothing to warrant being taken to the police station. It was something out of nothing and, sorry, but would I have been arrested if I wasn’t a footballer?/pp”If you looked at my local paper back home, the [Middlesbrough] Evening Gazette, you’d think I’d murdered someone. My family have to pick that up and it’s hard for them reading that I’m supposed to have been barred from the pubs in Yarm when I’ve never been barred from a pub in my life. The truth is there was nothing malicious. There was no fighting. It was a nothing incident and if I had a different job nobody would have batted an eyelid.”/ppCattermole, in fairness, could easily have skipped this interview but he wanted to put across his side. “Maybe I’ve got to be careful about putting myself in that position. I certainly won’t be going to the same place for another night out. But you learn through experience. I’m just a young lad who loves playing football and enjoys a crack with his mates. People will look at me being arrested and automatically think: ‘He must be a bad lad.’ And maybe it doesn’t help me that I play in an aggressive way. I know I could get a reputation. But I also know I’m not a bad person and the people who know me know that too.”/ppPoint made, the subject returns to his new life in the north-west. His role in the team, he says, is “to work my socks off and give the ball to someone who’s better on it than me”. Yet there is far more to Cattermole than just breaking up play and laying off simple passes. The midfielder is still five months short of turning 21 but has already played more than 100 games. /pp”I’ve played against a lot of the guys who have got into the England squad - Scott Parker, Jimmy Bullard, people like that - and I feel like I’m holding my own,” he says. “Plus I’m still only 20. I think people forget how young I am sometimes./pp”We played Arsenal in the Carling Cup the other week and everyone was talking about all these great kids and what great futures they have. And yet a lot of them were only my age. I’ve been playing in the Premier League since I was 17. The difference is that nobody thinks of me as one of the young lads any more, and I’d rather it be like that, instead of being seen as a kid.”/ppLeaving Middlesbrough was hard. Cattermole was brought up in Stockton and his attachment to the club was so strong that he famously broke down in tears after a heavy defeat to Aston Villa in his breakthrough season. The fans loved his passion. But it is not a decision he regrets./pp”I just felt that once [Steve] McClaren had gone I wasn’t playing as many games. It was like I’d hit a standstill. The new gaffer [Gareth Southgate] took over and suddenly I was in and out of the team. I haven’t got a bad word to say about him. He was the best player I’ve ever played with, a great leader and a model professional and he sent me a nice letter when I left. But he preferred other players to me, which can happen, and I wanted to play more regularly. I’m happier now because I’m playing for someone who wants me.” It has been a bittersweet week but it is safe to say the highs will outweigh the lows throughout the rest of Lee Cattermole’s career./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague”Premier League/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/wiganathletic”Wigan Athletic/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=nldspacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227315071271112201002056189″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=nldspacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227315071271112201002056189″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

Original post by Daniel Taylor

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/36612?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+Burley+the+optimist+chooses+to+see+half-empty+stadium+as+half-fullch=Footballc3=The+Guardianc4=Scotland+football+team%2CArgentina+football+team%2CFootball%2CSportc5=Football+World+Cup%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Ewan+Murrayc7=2008_11_19c8=1120030c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=Scotlandc13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2FScotland” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpGeorge Burley last night issued a firm defence of Scotland’s football-supporting public despite little over half the tickets for tonight’s visit of Argentina being sold, a potential source of embarrassment for the country’s football association./ppDiego Maradona’s debut as the Argentina national coach has failed fully to capture the imagination of Scottish fans and as of yesterday only 28,000 tickets had been sold for the friendly at the 52,000-capacity Hampden Park. By kick-off, the Scottish FA hopes that figure will have risen to 35,000. Anything less and, given Argentina’s pound;800,000 appearance fee, the host association is virtually certain not to break even on the glamour fixture./ppAn SFA spokesman said it would be “delighted” if 35,000 attend, even if such a crowd would seem disproportionate to worldwide media interest in Argentina and Maradona’s arrival on these shores. A bullish marketing campaign, particularly after Maradona’s appointment last month, appears to have done little to entice potential paying customers./ppYet Burley is upbeat. “People have got to be realistic,” he said. “It is a midweek game and in the present climate it costs a lot of money. If it was a Saturday, it would be easier for people to bring their families. If we are talking about 35,000, that is a terrific crowd for a midweek game. To get 35,000 in this climate and in this day and age would be very good.”/ppBurley also dismissed any notion that naming his starting XI a day early might boost the attendance figure and declined an opportunity to do so. “I don’t see the benefit in that,” he said./ppAdult ticket prices have ranged from pound;25-pound;35 for the game, with family - one adult and one child - packages available for pound;28. The SFA spokesman added that the “atmosphere and occasion” was more significant than making a financial loss. But, given that the SFA chief executive, Gordon Smith, has stated a near-capacity crowd would encourage him in trying to bring Brazil to Glasgow, the Tartan Army are now unlikely to catch sight of Dunga and his squad in the near future./ppOn the field Burley believes the simple tactic to ensure Scotland avoid defeat to the team currently ranked sixth in the world relates to his players’ level of effort. “The only way we are going to compete against teams like Argentina is by working harder than them,” said the manager. “Working harder is the challenge. We may not be able to compete with their individual talents, with which they have been brought up, but we can work harder as a team. As a manager, you concentrate on your own team, not the opposition, no matter who you are playing. It is just more important you get it right when you face the top sides.”/ppBarry Ferguson will feature for the first time since Burley was appointed in January after a series of injury problems. Though Ferguson’s Rangers team-mates, Lee McCulloch and Kris Boyd, have recently retired from international duty but Burley has never had any doubts about the Scotland captain’s continued willingness to represent his country./pp”Barry has been desperate to get out there, he is desperate to play,” said Burley, who is likely to spare the midfielder 90 minutes of action. “His enthusiasm to play for his country has never waned.” Another Rangers player, Allan McGregor, will start in goal with Craig Gordon injured./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/scotland”Scotland/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/argentina”Argentina/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”guRssAdvert”a href=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=nldspacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227054414974111900270935413″img src=”http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Footballcountry=nldspacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227054414974111900270935413″ border=”0″ //a/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

Original post by Ewan Murray

Manchester City suffered a major embarrassment in their bid to qualify for the UEFA Cup

Original post by Daniel Taylor

Manchester City suffered a major embarrassment in their bid to qualify for the Uefa Cup with a 1-0 loss to FC Midtjylland

Original post by Daniel Taylor