Usually it’s the bearers of the gift that you need to be a bit cautious about but on this occasion it might prove to be the gift itself. I was quite happily festooned with chocolate and some nice jewellery from the parental trip to Crete but no the Hellenic largesse was not over. Imagine our delight when I discovered that the nation that gave us the Acropolis, Socrates, Plato, Prince Philip and Demis Roussos had seen fit to pass on a second hand football manager!
Indeedy. Claudio Ranieri’s next port of call after leading Greece to a wintery defeat against those footballing giants the Faroe Islands is the less sunny but probably more solvent, City of Lesta. Admittedly you can’t expect much from a bankrupt nation, but was this strictly necessary? I would like to assure the Greeks that Angela Merkel et al are not season ticket holders at Filbert Way…it you thought this was suitable revenge for your bailout deal then you are barking up the wrong baum as they would say in the fatherland. Still it does mean that Lesta fans are back where we are most comfortable after the cheery end to last season. Yup we are once again residing in Turmoil Street, Despondencyville, Underwhelmed-shire.
Don’t get me wrong I’ve got nothing against the fellah. He is dapper. The Guardian tell me he is humble and honourable. The Times reassures me that his record is better than the critics suggest. And I am sure that if he has any offspring then they can be trusted on a goodwill tour to Thailand. But I am still not sure that he is right for our club or more importantly the team wot Nigel built. And can you have any confidence in a man whose name is an anagram of Ciao dire urinal?
Amidst all this doom I turned to literature for solace, surely Mr Shakespeare could do what our Thai owners had failed to do and warm the various crustacea of TLF’s frozen heart.
Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing? “Emotionally immature, weak, compliant and difficult to sympathise with.”
Or Claudio in Measure for Measure? Brings back depressing memories of an unloved
A-level text…..Thanks for nothing Will.
The only thing left to do is, as we say at work to, “suck it up.” We are football fans and therefore beggars not choosers when it comes to the direction of our club. Hopefully Claudio will prove us all wrong and before you know it we will be inventing songs in his honour. Equally we could be only a few months away from discovering the long lost John Le Carre footballing spy novel, ‘Ostrich, tinker, care-tailor manager, (I) spy (relegated by Christmas).’
Not Smiley Fox