THERE ARE SPORTS WRITERS AND THERE ARE HACKS

Brian Reade in The Mirror on Didier Drogba


'against Barcelona on Wednesday, when he repeatedly hit the deck like a sack of manure, after turning away from the meekest of challenges with the grimace of a sniper's victim. And turned the stomach of every watching neutral.

 Once again, the vastly experienced 34-year-old kept halting a game of football, by writhing in agony at the slightest touch, hoping to get a fellow professional booked for something he hadn't done, then leapt up to show us it was all a phoney act.

 Astonishingly, serious people have defended, almost applauded, his behaviour, claiming it was part of a masterplan to beat Barcelona by running down the clock and disrupting their rhythm.

 We'll remember the dives and the rolls, the time-wasting and the sulks, the cynicism and deceit of a man for whom cheating appears part of his DNA.'

Actually Mr Reade, Didier will probably be remembered not only for his 150 + goals in the Premiership for Chelsea, but also as a UN Ambassador, a builder of Hospitals in his native Ivory Coast and as a Peacemaker in their civil war ..... what have you done on the world stage ?

La Gazzetta dello Sport

Barcelona because they are a team of great interchangeable midfield players. "Pep can put two midfielders in the centre of defence, like Picasso could put two eyes on the same side of a face."

 Chelsea because they are the highest expression of the classical tradition: "They have a defence that defends, a midfield that partly covers and partly creates, and an attack which attacks.

 Football was born and grew up like that, with that rigorous division of careers and tasks. Like a little city in which all do their job in the service of the community".

 "The best team didn't win. Fine. Beauty lost to the Beast. Lets allow that as well. But don't say it was "anti-football" that succeeded at Stamford Bridge, because it was just the opposite". "If Ulysses had tried to outbox Cyclopes he'd never have got home to Ithaca. Instead he waited, and on the counter attack he gouged out his one good eye. Ulysess is not "anti-football". Ulysses is heart and brain - and actually we still read him at school".

You choose which writer knows more about football.