Welcome to this week’s TWTWTW.
As you know, we had the dreaded internationals this week.
On a gloriously sunny day in Cardiff, Wales welcomed Slovakia for the first of their Euro 2020 qualifiers. In the impending days before the match, I was disseminating the team that Ryan Giggs should pick on social media, and look behold, he went with the exact XI that I wanted and we won 1-0.
It was debutant Daniel James who scored the match’s only goal. And from that moment on, he stole my heart. As a Cardiff City fan, am I even allowed to like a Swansea City player?
Unfortunately, the disgraceful racist abuse of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Raheem Sterling overshadowed what was a dominant performance by England in their 5-1 victory. One of the scorers on the night, Harry Kane, has finally been rewarded for scoring that penalty against Panama.
He was at Buckingham Palace recently to be presented an MBE by Prince William for his services to football, despite only being 25.
Provided he stays at Spurs, we all know it’ll be the only medal he’ll ever receive. Besides, a SuperBowl ring appears to be what he really wants to earn.
While you’re reading this, the Georgian players are still thinking about the tennis balls that were thrown onto the pitch by Irish supporters on Monday night, in protest at John Delaney remaining in the FAI hierarchy. Only a couple of minutes after the incident, Conor Hourihane had a free kick and bent the ball around the poorly executed wall.
A day later, Declan Rice’s change of allegiance to England prompted James McLean to hit out at his former teammates switch to England. He affirmed that “If you’re not proud to be here and we’re a stepping stone, then sod off and play for someone else”.
Are we just going to ignore the 7 caps he picked up for Northern Ireland’s Under 21’s then?
Former Cardiff City goalkeeper turned striker Josh Magennis came off the bench to score a late winner for Northern Ireland as they overcame Belarus 2-1 in Belfast. Unlike other Cardiff supporters, I always knew he was a keeper.
We really are blessed with the best football pundits in the world. This week, Dean Saunders had this to say on Callum Hudson-Odoi: “He’s got to stick with Chelsea, watch the likes of Pedro, Hazard & Willian. Study them & learn from them. Play now & again, then maybe next year go on loan to a Championship or League One club and play against men.”
The man was subject to a £35m offer from Bayern Munich in January.
I still love you, Deano. He will always be remembered as the bloke who left his car in a short stay car park when he flew out to be a pundit in France for a couple of weeks or so for Euro 2016.
The sage of Dean.
Huddersfield could be relegated this weekend, becoming only the second Premier League side to be relegated in March. Mark my words, they’ll stay up.
Have a great weekend everyone.
