THE RISE AND FALL OF THE UNDERDOG

No sooner had the 2013/14 season reached a thrilling climax, had the inevitable transfer and management merry-go-round begun to enter full swing. Clubs are scrapping to get negotiations done and deals reached before the World Cup begins or be left with considerably less time to bed in new additions when the tournament finishes in mid-July.

Much like last summer there will plenty of activity this summer and with the likes of Manchester United and Barcelona already appointing new managers in Louis van Gaal and Luis Enrique, these men will be looking to put their stamp on their sides, with United seemingly needing significant investment in order to become a real force in English football once again.

As well as United and Barca, other usual suspects will splash huge sums with the usual disregard for Financial Fair Play implications (see Manchester City and PSG) and in turn further inflate an extremely overpriced market.

But while Europe's elite continue to throw extortionate sums around, they do so at the detriment of the smaller clubs around Europe, going about things in an honest way and threatening to compete through hard work.

While Southampton haven't quite had enough in their squad to compete for major honours, they have exceeded all expectations under Mauricio Pochettino and after an impressive 14th place finish in their first season back in the top flight, have seen their stock rise once again by climbing to eighth this time around.

More impressively, the Saints have done so with a core of young English talent. Lets not ignore the fact the Southampton have spent almost £70million in the past two years, and with the signings of Dani Osvaldo and Gaston Ramirez aside (over a third of the overall sum being spent on these two players) money has been invested wisely. Players like Dejan Lovren and Vincent Wanyama were smart additions this summer along with the likes of Jay Rodriguez and Nathaniel Clyne last summer who have added much stability to an already talented young squad at St Mary's.

But while the Saints have become one of the neutral's favourites over the past few years with their exciting brand of football, and exciting talents like Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Morgan Schneiderlin things are about to take a sharp turn for the worst.

It came as no shock to anybody that Tim Sherwood lost his job as Tottenham manager this summer and although many expected Frank de Boer to take the job, Daniel Levy eventually gave Pochettino the nod and in an even more surprising move did so with a five year contract.

With question marks hanging over the future of some of Southampton's young stars already, the departure of their manager fuelled speculation even more over their exits with Lallana and Shaw in particular heading inevitably to one of the country's top clubs.

Rickie Lambert was soon to follow Pochettino out of the club securing a dream move to Liverpool who had released him some 17 years previous for a fee of £4 million. The sale of Lambert will have less impact on the Saints, and while they will be said to see him go given his service and impact he has had on club since arriving from Bristol Rovers in 2009, nobody will begrudge Lambert the chance to join his boyhood club. While the deal is more of a favour to Lambert, it also raises a sum of money which would not often be expected of a English 32-year-old and could rise even further.

The inevitable sales of Lallana and Shaw will be what worries Saints fans more, despite the £55million plus they can expect to receive for their young talents. While the money will give the club a chance to reinvest significantly in their squad, they will be losing not only their captain in Lallana, but their spine and the driving force behind the squad in the trio.

Southampton have an exceptional youth setup and have been unable to hold onto their prized assets in the past with the likes of Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all moving on to pastures new. With Lallana and Shaw heading for the exit door and the lure of the Premier League's elite, it could only be a matter of time before other promising up and comers such as Nathaniel Clyne, James Ward-Prowse, Callum Chambers and Sam Gallagher have done enough themselves to force the club to cash in.

Clubs such as Southampton have shown that a smaller club can impress and still make a name for themselves through a core of domestic talent but unfortunately will be ripped apart without the reputation of the top 5, or the financial clout of those backed by rich tycoons.

But this isn't only a problem with teams like Southampton, clubs who threaten to succeed and compete with the biggest names in their country suffer the consequences all over Europe and sometimes on a much grander scale. This season, Atletico Madrid secured their first La Liga title since 1996 and almost completed an audacious double only to be beaten by their city rivals in the final of Europe's elite competition. This was also achieved on a wage budget smaller than that of Championship side, QPR (for any football fan left who hadn't yet received this news).

But instead of looking like they will be viable option to defend their title next season and cement a firm place within the elite of Spanish football, it already seems like their squad will be ripped apart by Europe's alpha-male predators. Atleti's prized asset and top-scorer Diego Costa seems on the brink of a £32million switch to Chelsea, while the likes of Koke, Joao Miranda and Filipe Luis are all being touted for big money moves, with Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea just some of the likely destinations.

David Villa has already left to sign a lucrative contract with soon to be MLS outfit New York City and Tiago edges closer towards a free transfer back to Stamford Bridge. Again while many of these deals would give Atleti a significant sum to outlay on new faces, they lose the togetherness of a spirited squad most of whom languished in mediocrity before the belief injected by Diego Simeone following his appointment in December 2011.

In that same year of 2011, Borussia Dortmund overcame the defending champions and German powerhouse Bayern Munich to seal the first of two consecutive Bundesliga titles. That season, Jurgen Klopp had brought in astute signings in Robert Lewandowski and Shinji Kagawa costing the 1997 Champions League winners a combined sum of around £4 million. Ilkay Gundogan followed the next summer for a similar fee and with that, so did another title, with Dortmund quickly becoming one of Europe's most promising sides.

But despite establishing themselves as a real European force, highlighted even more so by them reaching the 2013 Champions League Final - losing a close game to fierce rivals Bayern - their team would start to move in a similar direction. Shinji Kagawa, arguably Dortmund's best player over those two title winning season's left for England and Manchester United, and despite replacing him with their former academy player, Marco Reus (re-signed after a successful stint at Monchengladbach) Dortmund have been unable to regain their domestic crown.

To make matters worse for the "Football hipster's" favourite side, the lure of Bayern Munich became too much for some of the Dortmund players with their academy star and golden boy Mario Gotze's £35million transfer announced just the day before the sides were due to meet in that European Cup final.

Just like that, Dortmund would begin to lose some of the stars who had made the club, for a period, the best club in Germany. This is not such an unfamiliar concept however, with the Bavarian club having made it something of a routine to take the Bundesliga's finest talent, particularly when it threatens their stranglehold over the nation. Bayer Leverkusen had reached the Champions League final in 2002, but still lost Michael Ballack and Ze Roberto to Bayern that summer. Leverkusen's threat ceased with the departure of such key figures and they slumped to 15th in the table the next season, with defender Lucio following in the footsteps of Ballack and Ze Roberto in 2004.

Sure as anything, Dortmund's woes haven't ended with the loss of Gotze. Robert Lewandowski has moved to the Allianz this summer on a free transfer, whilst Europe's predators continue to be linked with not only Jurgen Klopp, now one of the most sought after managers in Europe, but also key figures such as Bender, Gundogan, Reus and Hummels.

Dortmund have already invested wisely this summer, bringing in Adrian Ramos from Hertha Berlin and last season's Serie A top goalscorer Ciro Immobile to fill the void left by Lewandowski, but they may be powerless to stop their other key figures from following the Pole out of Signal Iduna Park's exit door.

While this summer will yet again prove exciting and eventful in the transfer window for Europe's elite and richest clubs, it will do so at the expense of some of those who we love to watch the most. The humble sides who don't splash around money handed to them by a rich Sugar Daddy who use a football club as their latest play thing. Which begs the question that without huge financial backing, where will Europe's next elite side come from? Gone are the days of a talented manager like Brian Clough being able to drag a team like Nottingham Forest up from the Second Division to European Cup winners within a number of years.

Loyalty seems to be an extremely rare commodity in football nowadays, and with money and sponsorships and huge contracts becoming such a huge part of the game, we may not see another underdog like an Atletico or a Dortmund turn themselves into top, consistent European force now as they will be ripped apart of the seams and stripped of anything and anyone the big boys can take for themselves. All because they have the audacity to compete.

Fergie time's long up, but Moyes' time never really came around

I love my club and will always support them no matter what. All the success that Manchester United have had over past 25 years or so was never going to last forever we all know that and that is something we all knew we would have to get used to. Six Alex Ferguson's retirement was a day we all knew was coming, but not something anybody really expected to come about when it did.

With a weakening squad, Fergie bowed out at the end of the 12/13 season possibly due to the fact that he realised that his current squad would not have another title in them and another rebuilding process would be one more long term project that he was not willing to take on.

Lots of names were banded around for the job which eventually fell to David Moyes, who was handed a 6-year contract showing the long-term ambition of the club. Moyes was after all the longest serving manager in the Premier League after Ferguson and Wenger who had enjoyed 11 moderately successful years at Everton.

Let's be realistic, you'll struggle to find many United fans who would have expected us to win the league in Moyes' first season, but a title challenge should for a club of our stature be a minimum.

Things never really got going and from the off set off on a frantic bid to win the fans around with a marquee signing. While the summer Wayne Rooney saga I'm sure won't have helped his cause, the circus surrounding the summer transfer chase was laughable. While I admired the fact we were chasing players of the calibre of Cesc Fabregas, the public admissions of transfer offerings (followed by inevitable snubs) was not the kind of confidence booster we needed.

Eventually we panicked at the idea of signing nobody and settled on Marouanne Fellaini.... I'll leave that one.

While fans got behind Moyes, many were quick to get on his back. It became clear fairly soon into the season that a title challenge was not going to be a realistic aim, but that's ok, its the post-Fergie rebuilding time. We will take 3rd and address things from there.

The #MoyesOut gang were out in their forces before too long, a clan which seemed to increase in members by the week. While I was always keen to give the new man a chance and give him the opportunity to turn things around patience seems to be at an end.

While I admire the fact that the United board took advice from Ferguson on who would replace him and saw his long stint at Everton as another opportunity for longevity at the club, the gamble hasn't paid off. While there were other options out there, (Yes Guardiola accepted the Bayern job well in advance, but surely Fergie knew he would be off at the end of the year) a manager was brought in who had done well at Everton, but was used to doing so with no budget.

With all due respect to David Moyes, he was always going to struggle to bring in the big names, while the prospect of playing for Manchester United or Sir Alex Ferguson may have been enough to lure players in the past, but players on the continent would hardly have been queuing up to play for Moyes.

Fair play to Moyes, he's come in and given it a go and who would blame him, but the differences this season to what we are used to is astounding and not one anybody could have really predicted. His interviews are baffling, and while our Champions League campaign was the only small ray of light this season this was constantly referred to by the Scot as something which "We're really enjoying playing in and want to carry on doing so."

"We're really enjoying playing in and want to carry on doing so."

Enjoying? Interviews like this made Moyes sound like he had won a competition to play in the Champions League (maybe he had), he was not referring to this as something which we have come to see as normality. And now we won't be next season.

I am by no means a fickle Manchester United fan. In fact I am very realistic and like I said, I will always support my team no matter what. While this season has been a disaster, far more so than anybody have expected, the blame can not completely be laid at Moyes door. When your player of the season by a mile is your goalkeeper, you know things aren't going well. The players have not performed, senior players like Vidic and Evra have looked out of sorts and our general play has been lacklustre. With the attacking talent in the team it's quite incredible how we can have so much possession and create so few clear cut chances.

But while the players have under-performed, the manager is there to address that. It's no use listing the unwanted records Moyes has tallied this season, but from 1st in the table to struggling for 7th place is an extra-ordinary fall from grace.

The players seem completely unmotivated, and while I've always been behind him and will be as long as he is at the club, it's painfully obvious that Moyes is not that man to inspire. While other clubs have strengthened their squads, so have we spending £70million this season on Mata and Fellaini. While our squad is not what it once was, it is better than last season, when we were Champions. While we weren't strong last year we had a winning mentality. We had a never say die attitude. We had belief. Players would have been scared to go back to the dressing room on the back of a shocking performance knowing the rollocking that would have come their way were they to do so.

Let's look at Liverpool for example. Brendan Rodgers may have led his side to 7th place in his first season, but due to those who had come before him, this wasn't a complete disaster. Liverpool were playing at around that level and had hired an intelligent manager who played an exciting brand of football. It pains me to see Liverpool doing so well and will hurt even more so when they inevitable clinch the title, a title which they realistically had no right to win. On paper perhaps at the start of the season you'd have said their squad wasn't up to it, but they have played by far the best and most exciting football this season and will deserve the title. The players believe in their manager and play well for him, without them having to spend the £100m + which you would have thought they would have needed to this season to compete.

And there lies the difference. While Moyes may be a nice guy and a promising manager in many ways, maybe this step up was just too much. But why give him the opportunity to build a new squad and one, two or even three new transfer windows to overhaul the squad if he's not the man to lead them forwards afterwards? Why give him the money to spend a fortune on players who again struggle to be motivated by their manager?

While a 6 year contract was optimistic and done with good intention ( I was fooled, I was happy with the choice and happy with the belief instilled in the new man) perhaps it has reached a time where you have to assess what is in front of you and address something before it gets worse. Of course Fergie's early days weren't always easy, but in there you saw a passionate manager with experience of winning trophies who could encourage the team and put the fear of god into them at the same time.

Patience is thin, belief is thin so reluctantly, #MoyesOut.

BALOTELLI: THE GAFF THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

The arrival of 2013 could have brought a new year and a new start for Manchester City's egocentric striker Mario Balotelli, however, the year was barely three days in before the Italian was yet again creating headlines, and again even more unsurprisingly for all the wrong reasons.

The 22-year-old was involved in a heated training ground exchange with his manager Roberto Mancini, allegedly after a bad tackle committed by Balotelli on Scott Sinclair. The former Inter Milan forward took exception to his managers orders for him to leave the field, before an ugly altercation occurred. (But enough about Carlos Tevez)

The incident will undoubtedly lead to increased speculation about the strikers future, with many expecting his days at Eastlands to be numbered already, following a string of unsavoury incidents since his arrival in Manchester in 2010.

Mancini has naturally moved quickly to play down the incident and give Balotelli his backing, but for a man who has been so critical of the attitude of his young forward in the past, the clouds of doubt in Mancini's mind will surely becoming darker and darker by the day.

Mancini appears less convincing by the day in his defence of Balotelli, and the stress seems to be getting to the man who once cut an ice cool figure at Eastlands, both in the dugout and during his pre and post match interviews.

City fans must surely be wondering whether now is finally the time to cut their losses on a striker who despite possessing an unquestionable talent, has, for whatever reason, failed to establish himself as a regular first team starter at the Etihad.

With City having one of Europe's most feared front lines in Aguero, Tevez, Dzeko and Balotelli, and with the club's wealthy owners always looking to seek out any other potential world stars, (Radamel Falcao and Edinson Cavani have been linked with moves to the Etihad in recent weeks) the Italian will surely find himself at the wrong end of an impressive pecking order.

Balotelli's talents are known the world over, and ever since he first appeared on the scene at the San Siro, making his debut in 2007, he was always destined for great things. Or so it seemed....

The striker has a bad habit of letting controversy get in the way of what could be a long and prosperous career, and Mancini himself who despite witnessing this first hand at Inter and believed enough to bring him to Manchester, even at times seems to be losing patience in his protege.

Balotelli suffered a turbulent relationship at Inter under Mourinho, who took particular exception, (understandably) to the then 19 year-old wearing the shirt of fierce rivals AC Milan during an interview.

This is just one of a number of headlines made by Balotelli including further training ground bust ups with Micah Richards and Yaya Toure (amongst others), breaking curfews, setting fire to his mansion after setting off fireworks inside the house, throwing darts at youth team players, driving into a women's prison and being unable to solve the modern day rubik's cube that is a bib. (To name just a few incidents.)

But why always him???

AC Milan are rumoured to be interested in offering Balotelli a return to his home nation - a move which would surely he would favour given the t-shirt stunt - and now could be the time to move on and attempt to re-establish his career somewhere that he could go on to become the phenomenon he was once expected to be.

It seems very hard to fathom that despite any attempts of either a reconciliation or playing down rumours of a permanent rift between Mancini and Balotelli that both men will still be in Manchester for the beginning of the 2013/14 season.

The smart money would be on City to back the man who has delivered the club their first ever Premier League title, but with City seven points behind in the title race and nothing to show in the Champions League, without a drastic turnaround in fortunes this season, it is not unfathomable that the current Champions could begin next season's campaign without both of their most famous Italians.

MARQUEZ FINALLY LAYS PACQUIAO GHOST TO REST

On Saturday night at the MGM Grand, Juan Manuel Marquez finally managed to exercise a demon.

Marquez scored a savage knockout on Manny Pacquiao with just one second remaining in round 6 so telling that referee Kenny Bayliss abandoned his count with Pac Man out cold on the canvas.

The Filipino and former pound for pound king has haunted the Mexican, ever since the first of their four explosive bouts, eight and a half years ago.

That night at the same venue, Marquez dusted himself off from three early knockdowns and was able to fight his way back to a controversial draw.

Since then, with the fighters reputations and stock greatly rising, the pair fought twice more, with each fight perhaps controversially going the way of Pacquiao, the first by way of split decision in 2008 before scoring a majority decision last year.

The Mexican legend will have every right to feel aggrieved with the results of each fight, but being the consummate professional he is fought on and no fight fan was disappointed when it was announced that a fourth bout would take place.

The fight was just as important for Pacquiao as for Marquez. Despite winning two of the three bouts, the Filipino still felt that with the results of the previous fights much argued and separating many opinions he needed to stop the Mexican to put an end to the arguments once and for all.

Barely minutes had gone before the Las Vegas crowd knew they were witnessing a 'Fight of the Year' contender, but even they could not have predicted things panning out quite as they did.

Marquez, who had bulked up considerably since the pairs previous meeting, scored an early knockdown, evading a Pacquiao shot before throwing a devastating overhand right to see his rival hit the canvas in third round.

Pacquiao picked himself up almost straight away and was full of movement and as he usually does, dictated the pace of the fight, but was up against a clever fighter in Marquez.

The Filipino scored a knockdown of his own in the fifth round, with a straight left hand shot forcing the Mexican to touch his glove on the canvas and face a mandatory eight count from referee Bayliss.

As the sixth round got underway, it looked more as though we would be seeing a result we had become used to, with Pacquiao controlling the fight and ahead on all three of the judges scorecards.

Marquez was bruised and bloodied, and with a broken nose, Pacquiao as promised moved in for the kill, in an attempt to prove his killer instinct has not yet deserted him, and in search of his first knockout victory since stopping Miguel Cotto in 2009.

But as the saying goes, 'One punch can change a fight' and that was to prove exactly the case. With Pacquiao hunting down Marquez, whose legs had clearly been wobbled earlier in the round, he made one glaring error, one he had not learned from after suffering his knockdown just moments before. Pacquiao deserted his head bobbing and weaving for just long enough to allow one of the finest counter punchers in the sport to land a devastating blow and saw the former pound for pound champion suffer his first knockout defeat since 1999, before his career in the United States took off.

As HBO's Jim Lampley said at the time, the knockout was one of the most devastating seen since Sergio Martinez put Paul Williams out cold during their second encounter, and Marquez certainly would have troubled most Middleweights with his shot.

Pacquiao remained on the canvas for over two minutes while Marquez was mobbed by his corner, the relief and joy clear to see, with the Mexican finally vindicated for his self belief and the efforts given during 42 rounds with the Filipino.

But what now for the two fighters?

In an interview after the fight, Pacquiao called for a 5th bout between the two, while many believe that he should hang up his gloves after suffering two defeats in a row.

The fact is, there is no shame in losing a fight like that to a fighter of Marquez calibre. Pacquiao proved that he was more than in the fight, and looked to be closing in on victory, while his previous defeat to Timothy Bradley was nothing but a farce, with Pacquiao the clear winner.

At 33 years of age, Pacquiao could fight on, and a rematch with Bradley could be on the horizon before a potential mouthwatering 5th matchup with Marquez does take place.

One thing that does appear certain for Freddie Roach's prized asset, is that a mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather may not have slipped just too far out of reach.

Pacquiao has stated last week that he was ready to give into Mayweather's previous demands and a fight had seemed destined to finally take place in 2013. However another defeat for Pac Man means a less desirable prospect for Mayweather who no longer has his position as the top ranked pound for pound fighter in doubt.

Marquez on the other at the age of 39 is surely entering the final stages of career. Although he rolled back the years on Saturday night displaying superb ring knowledge and a formidable display of power, there may not be too many fights left in the Mexican hall of famer.

With another fight with Pacquiao being a viable and an extremely lucrative option, a second bout with Mayweather may tempt him more. This could prove a step to far though even for Marquez who was convincingly beaten by Mayweather in their previous bout in 2009. Mayweather would not leave himself open for Marquez to land bombs like he did on Saturday night, and any rematch between the two would surely go a similar way to their first meeting.

Or perhaps now after finally laying the Pacquiao ghost to rest, Marquez can rest on his laurels and slip into retirement content with being one of the finest boxers of his generation. But with being as capable as he proved on Saturday night, I speak for any fight fan when I say that I would love to see the Mexican fight again. If not with Pacquiao, then perhaps with Miguel Cotto at Welterweight, with the Puerto Rican losing his previous light-middleweight fight to Austin Trout. An all Mexican clash with the unbeaten Saul Alvarez would also be a mouthwatering prospect.

Either way, as much as a Pacquiao victory would surely have edged things closer to a mega-fight with Mayweather, Marquez victory on Saturday night was a victory for boxing, and finally brought justice to a fine boxer.

Why Scott Parker WILL make a good England Captain

While the England captaincy debate rumbles on, question marks still remain over the leadership of the side, with the FA today announcing that Fabio Capello's successor will now not be announced until the end of the season.

Stuart Pearce has ruled himself of the race taking over the poisoned challis but has offered to lend his services to the position for the extent of this summer's European Championships. Pearce took charge of the England side who suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Netherlands on Wednesday night. But no matter how long or short lived Pearce's tenure proves to be, one decision he made has and will continue to cause a stir.

On the morning of the game, Pearce announced that Scott Parker would lead the side out in what would be just his 11th cap. Despite having more experienced players in the squad such as Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole, the England caretaker manager opted for a new choice in Parker, who was named England's player of the year just the previous day.



Despite Parker being one of the front-runners for the award along with Steven Gerrard and Joe Hart, many questions were raised by press and fans alike, meeting the appointment with surprise and questioning Parker's credibility for the role, suggesting that Gerrard's experience would make him the obvious choice.

This may be the case, and as Gerrard edges ever closer to the 100 cap mark (now on 90), this will inevitably have been playing on the mind of Stuart Pearce when making his decision. Let's not forget that Gerrard has captained the side before, and skippered the side at 2010's shambles of a world cup campaign for England in South Africa.

I am not suggesting for one second that Gerrard is to blame for England's dismal performance, as he was in fact one of the only shining lights in an otherwise dark time for English football.

The fact is though however, that not only has Gerrard been injured for a large portion of the season, but it could be argued that the Liverpool captain does not quite have the impact for club and country that he once had.

Much like his long term international colleague Frank Lampard, Gerrard cannot necessarily be still guaranteed a place in the side, and were Jack Wilshire to be fit, may be first choice alongside Parker while Gerrard would have to take a back seat.

Parker's appointment caps a meteoric rise for the Tottenham midfielder who first appeared on our screens in a McDonalds advert, as part of a USA '94 World Cup Campaign.



After rising to prominence at Charlton, making his debut at the age of 16, Parker continued to impress and was handed his England debut in 2003 in a friendly against Denmark. Parker capped a dream season by being named PFA Young Player of the Year which was enough to convince Claudio Ranieri to splash out £10million for his services.

Parker struggled to make an impact at Chelsea, with injury restricting his playing time, along with the arrival of manager Jose Mourinho who favoured the Portugese midfielder Tiago instead of Parker.

After leaving Chelsea, Parker joined Newcastle United and began to resurrect his career and was named Newcastle Captain. He spent 2 years with Newcastle before moving back down to the capital, this time with West Ham. It was here where Parker would play some of his best football since his Charlton days.

Parker was again made Captain, and despite West Ham's poor season last season, culminating in relegation to the Championship, Parker's efforts were recognised, as he regained his place in the England side, where he began to establish himself as first choice, as well as being named as Football Writers Player of the Year last season.

It became inevitable that Parker would need to leave West Ham in order to prolong his International career, but now the question was not whether he would be able to cut it at the top level, but instead which top level club he would be turning out for.

It was Tottenham who managed to secure the signature of Parker, and he has continued to show this season why he was so sought after adding some much needed steel to an already impressive Tottenham midfield, and has ensured that the likes of Sandro who began to establish himself in the Spurs side last season, is now firmly second choice.

Parker displays a passion when he plays, he is an old-fashioned ball winning centre midfielder, and while this enthusiasm and drive to compete for the ball can, at times be detrimental to his play. (See last weekend's two bookable offences vs Arsenal)

Although there are other players in the England side who may have more caps or more experience playing either at international level or top class club level, Parker still shows the same hunger and desire he showed at Charlton, and has continued to do so throughout his career.

He plays with a fire in his eyes and a hunger in his belly, and regardless of whether he is wearing the armband or not, looks like he wants to perform for his country, and do his nation proud every time he steps onto the field, more than be said for some of his international colleagues.

At 31 years of age, Parker's appointment may be seen as something of a gamble, particularly due to the fact that he is still relatively inexperienced on an international stage, but the fact is, Parker has played his into this position. His performances over the past 2 years, for West Ham, Tottenham and England have been of a consistent high standard.

How long he has left on the international stage remains to be seen, but while players like Wayne Rooney or Joe Hart who are still relatively young and could captain the side for many years to come, who is to say a more short term option isn't worth exploring.

His appointment of England captain by Stuart Pearce lets not forget may only be a temporary measure, and whoever does take the Manager's job may have other ideas in mind with regards to his skipper, but Parker has done enough to pose a headache for whoever does come into the role.

What England needs is a captain who exudes pride and passion which cannot be doubted that Parker does so. You could see the emotion is Parker's eyes as he led his side onto the field for Wednesday night, and he played with the same pride throughout the game.

Parker is no John Terry. While Terry was and still is a good leader on the park, how much respect he still commands is for anyone to say. Pearce appointed Parker as he is "well respected among the camp" and will do what an England captain needs to do. He will set an example on and off the field and will not find himself in the papers for the wrong reason.



If he get the role long term, I am by no means suggesting that Parker will single handedly ensure that England's many years of hurt will be wiped away and he lead his side to glory at either Euro 2012 or the World Cup 2014, but one thing can be assured, that he will give his all trying. He will never duck a tackle or shy away. He will never shirk responsibility.

Don't get me wrong, if a new manager comes in and appoints either Steven Gerrard or Joe Hart as England captain then they have every reason to do so, with both players displaying excellent leadership credentials and Hart particular would be an outstanding candidate to lead the team for many years to come.

But is Scott Parker the right man for the England captaincy now?? I think so. (Did you get that yet?)