I've been thinking about something to rant about for awhile now. Nothing really came to mind. I can't be satisfied with the way football is as there is always a major talking point somewhere, somehow. There's the ever boring topic of the EPL, crap refs, fourth officials, club vs country etc etc on and on. Yet I can't seem to find anything recently that makes me feel like speaking out on the matter. Maybe it's because no answer will solve anything completely. We will never go without controversy in football.

Take the issue of club vs country for example. My personal opinion on it is that the line is far too fine for both sides to be able to come to a decent compromise. Theo Walcott dislocated his shoulder whilst training with England and is now out for 3 months. What to do for Wenger and Arsenal fans? Arsenal may be eligible for compensation but what good is that when they can't replace him with a similar player to cover for him while he's injured? Players should play for their country if fit and available, that's my personal opinion. But it's impossible to predict how or when a player will be injured. Who knew Walcott's brittle shoulder would fall out of place? Clubs have every reason to be wary of these friendlies. On the evidence of England's second string win against Germany, international friendlies are extremely useful for coaches to gauge and judge their player's abilities. Clubs protest against this simply for their own benefit. Obviously they'd rather let a player recuperate for a whole week rather than fly off somewhere and play for their country. Both club and countries have reason to be wary of each other. And any player with any sort of dream and ambition would love to represent their country.

This leads to another stalemate in terms of compromise. Clubs don't want to release players for friendlies for fear of injury, serious or otherwise. Valid point. Players, understandably, want to impress their international manager and cement their places on the national squad. Valid point. Countries want the players to see whether they can do a job for the millions of fans who pin their hopes and dreams on them. Valid point. So what's the answer? Compensation does little for the club who have lost one of their key players (although in Arsenal's case they probably have a fresh faced teenager ready to fill in). (Normal) Players will get annoyed if they are prevented from joining up with the national squad (unless they think it is their God-given right to do their country a favour. By the way that is way over the top for me). National teams will be annoyed because they can't alter the international calendar as the rest of the year is too jam packed with club football to fit in any other dates. So with all three parties having valid arguments and the compromise not able to accomodate the wishes of everyone what happens now? Nothing quite frankly. Just more and more time devoted to people voicing reasons for and against international friendlies. And me feeling jaded and bored with the whole issue.

That's just one example. Take refs as another one. You get the whole "refs need to be of a better standard" etc etc and the other side's defending them with "they are only human" etc etc. No decent compromise either. Many other issues with the same debate and answer like salary caps, Beckham to Milan, Liverpool to win the Premiership and why Ryan Babel raps. Incidently have a look at it below.



Click HERE to go to the page where you can get the translation of this ludicrous attempt at integrating talking with weird beats.

That's that for now. Catch highlights of Brazil mauling Portugal if you can. There's an issue with a clear conclusion. Brazil are better. Period.