Sport's Summer of sultry, soggy, shocks and success

By nature the British are a stoic and cautious breed which has earned them an international reputation for unpredictability. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the skies and on our playing fields. The weather in and around this small island is notoriously fickle and over recent years the gods have made reigned havoc over the Summer months. Equally unpredictable have been the performances of our sporting elite.

2014 has been a busy year of sport with the Soccer World Cup, the Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, a long season of international cricket, the Twenty20 World Cup, Golf and a wealth of rugby international fixtures.

As Roy Hodgson says, we are not very good with the ball at our feet and we are not very good with the ball in the air – Now I may not have taken my FA coaching badges but in my understanding that does rather limit our options given the objectives of the game.

Things were going so well up to the point that the team got on the plane. Roy looked very much at home on his fact finding mission to Manaus (in that 'Bemused pensioner abroad' guise - must have really put the fear into the opposition). By and large no one was expecting the side to do brilliantly in this tournament so there should have been no surprises when the overall performance can at best be described as 'understated'. What I did not expect to read were so many people saying afterwards that we should have achieved more. Yes, on our day the team should have done better but based on the performances on the pitch I don't see how we deserved any more. Some of the less fancied teams turned up and raised their game, sadly we did not.

It was an interesting competition, that had its share of great moments, touches of individual brilliance and outstanding games but overall you could not say that any of the teams was in the same bracket as some of the great sides of the past.

The tennis came hard on the back of the soccer which helped the healing process. Andy Murray once more carried the British hopes but never looked at ease following his back problems. The fact that the tournament was played in largely glorious weather was an added bonus and the overall standard was pretty high.

Golf always has been a great leveller and with Tiger Woods returning from injury and Rory McIlroy's form wavering it has been an interesting Summer which opened the door for other players to step up to the mark. Though Tiger has already ruled himself out through injury it should be an interesting Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in September.

England's cricketing woes continued throughout most of the Summer. Apart from the last 3 test matches, which were the first we had won in 11 tests, the majority of the performances were way below expected. Alastair Cook and Ian Bell couldn't buy a run, the bowling was average and the middle order batting was unable to step up to the plate with any consistency.

What has been intriguing to me is the number of records that have been set by lower order batsmen. I'm not sure that it tells us much about the standard of batting or bowling, but it has made several of the matches far more entertaining than they deserved to be.

Let's face it, as a bowler James Anderson is one of the best swing-bowlers around, but with bat in hand he is a 'ferret' (the guy they send in after the 'rabbits'). For him to score 95 runs in a test match, at number 11! - It must have been a full moon.

In the 2^nd test England managed to conjure defeat from a winning position and in the remaining 3 tests India capitulated through a mixture of strange team selection, poor bowling and weak batting. A great pity since several of their top order batsmen are very capable run scorers though, Dhoni apart, they were all going through the same turmoil that has thwarted Alastair Cook for much of the past 18 months.

So now we are back to the football season and it would seem that the heat has already made some of the club chairmen tetchy. One manager in the championship was sacked after just one game, and Crystal Palace parted company with their manager, Tony Pulis, 2 days before the start of the season.

The usual frenzy of the transfer market distracts the attention from what is happening on the pitch. Personally, I think it is to the detriment of the game to have a transfer window that stretches into the season. It is hard enough to get a new team of players to gel on the pitch and it can't help not knowing whether you are going have the same squad from one day to the next.

While most clubs are forced to rummage around in the bargain basement it would seem that the present trend is for the rich clubs to buy up any player they deem to be a potential threat to them and loan them out to a team from a league as far removed from their own as possible.

A lot of money appears to have changed hands but it is hard to see that any Premier League side has greatly strengthened their squad. I would love someone to explain what is going on at Southampton. Having overachieved last year they have sold the backbone of the team and consequently find themselves favourites for the drop this season. Liverpool have splashed the cash in the expectation of a run in the Champions League, Manchester United, Manchester City,Tottenham, Arsenal and Everton seem to be chasing every player with a world cup pedigree who is unsettled or only has a year left on their contract.

The fact so many of the top clubs have been looking to offload some of their fringe or surplus players (and largely failing) would indicate how the market has been driven by over-priced prima donnas. The number of clubs competing for the top players is increasing as the game increases it global foothold. Transfer fees may continue to rise but you really have to question what you are getting for your money.

Are the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Bale really worth £80m? Eyebrows were raised when Torres was sold to Chelsea for £50m. Given some of the fees paid of late it is a wonder eyes have not popped out of their sockets.

This time last season I was warming to the transfer of Mehmet Ozil to Arsenal for £42m as shrewd business (the sight of Wenger opening his wallet always raises an eyebrow). Up until Christmas he looked like a man on a mission, since then he looks like a man who has gone missing. A world class player who has lost the 'cl'. Players with the talent of a Torres or an Ozil do not lose their ability overnight, all players go through bad spells, but usually the confidence returns and they bounce back. With the pressures of the game today and the money being spent on the top performing players it remains to be seen how long clubs will wait for players to re-discover their form once it has deserted them.

No sooner has Liverpool's Bad Boy, Luis Suarez, left these shores than they replace him with another bad boy, Mario Balotelli. He might be good for the telly, not so sure what damage he might bring to the dressing-room. And, in what appears to have a whiff of desperation Manchester United have forked out nearly £60m for Argentine winger, Angel Di Maria, taking their spending in the past 2 years to over £200m. Personally, I did not think that Di Maria had a particularly great world cup. Yes, he has a certain talent but I feel his valuation has been boosted by the unavailability of many of the other top players.

Not sure what was going through Arsene Wenger's mind when he allowed Cesc Fabregas to move to Chelsea for £27m. Maybe Arsenal do have a surfeit of midfielders on the payroll but most of them have season tickets for the treatment room, none are natural leaders and allowing a player of his class to go to one of your main competitors, when you have 1^st option would seem contrary to what most other clubs would have done.

 

Clearly the Summer sun has gone to some of the manager's heads, or is it just the heat of the battle.