England’s not so friendly plan

Newcastle win in Belgium

Jackett not required

—– Following coach Steve McClaren’s comments that he was in favour of replacing England’s friendly matches with more intense training camps, the Football Association reduce the schedule of friendlies from 20 to 18 over the four-year period starting in 2008.
Speaking after last week’s disappointing game against Spain, McClaren said: “Maybe this one came at a bad time. We ended up using it as an experiment, because we didn’t have seven or eight of our senior players.”
Significantly, at least six of those senior players played for the full 90 minutes of Premiership games at the weekend.
As well as leading clubs’ reluctance to release their top players, long gone are the days when England friendlies are viewed by the public as ‘must-see’ events.
The Spain game attracted a crowd of 58,207 - nearly 20,000 below Old Trafford’s capacity.
The FA’s proposed reduction of an average of half-game a season may well have been higher had it not been for commitments to television deals and the need to try to justify the huge cost of the new Wembley Stadium.

—– Newcastle United look almost certain to reach the last 16 of the UEFA Cup after a 3-1 away win in the first leg of their tie with Belgian part-timers Zulte Waregem.
After the match played at Ghent, Toon boss Glenn Roeder showed no signs of complacency: “We should have done better with the free kick that led to their goal and not giving a foul away would have helped.
“It was a relatively comfortable win, but we were sloppy at times and that disappointed me.”

—– Kenny Jackett stuns Swansea City after admitting his desire to leave his post of manager at the League One promotion chasers.
His departure is agreed by ‘mutual consent’.
Chairman Huw Jenkins blames the level of criticism from the supporters and media: “I was very surprised when I received a call from Kenny, and I’m very disappointed with how things have worked out.
“He was upset. He’s thought things over and felt the criticism against him was difficult to take.”
The former Watford defender leaves the Liberty Stadium after nearly three years in charge of the Swans.
He led them to promotion in his first full season in charge, and they were only denied consecutive promotions last term by penalties in the Play-Off Final against Barnsley.
Despite significant backing in the transfer market, City are currently two points outside the Play-Offs having lost at home to leaders Oldham Athletic at the weekend.
Assistant manager Kevin Nugent is placed in temporary charge.
Jackett becomes the 29th manager of a Premiership or Football League club to lose his job this season.