For me, the matter is clear. I'm the captain of Germany and intend to take on the role again when I'm fit. I can't wait to lead Germany into the Euro 2012 qualifiers and make a success of it.
There is a down side that there might result in some unemployment, but there is an average eight-year career for players, and players at the top level will have an opportunity to move on, and if they cannot make a squad of 25 should be thinking of moving on. Less wealthy clubs will find they have an opportunity of picking up some big name players, like Cardiff have done with Craig Bellamy.
Ayn Rand rolls over in her grave.
It was basically a different type of running, for instance. We used to do 1200m and 800m runs way back when I first came to the club. Now, the most we will run is, maybe, 200m. That is a massive change but the results are quite emphatic in the sense of it is the right direction we are going in. Sports science has changed a lot of things and I think a lot of it has been for the good.
Sandton is a reassuringly western enclave for those alarmed about reports of crime in Johannesburg's inner city and townships. It also happens to be the World Cup headquarters of Fifa, whose 200 delegates will stay at the five-star, faux Italianate Michelangelo Hotel. According to South African press reports, Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, will sleep at the Michelangelo Towers with his own red-carpeted private entrance to a spacious office, an entourage of five bodyguards, an African-themed en-suite bathroom and a personalised mini-bar stocked with South African wine and ice cubes made from bottled Evian water from France.
Mourinho has introduced English football to the notion of "resting with the ball", and ball retention in itself can be a way of wearing down an opponent, even if there is not a lead to be protected, but there is a danger that possession becomes an end in itself, rather than a means to opening space or running down the clock. There are times when sideways passing is simply a means of offloading responsibility, and there were spells last week when Barça's passing, usually so incisive, seemed like passing for passing's sake. As Hughes adapted Reep's ideas, and applied them at the FA's Centre of Excellence at Lilleshall, direct football became the explicit tactical philosophy of the English game, and the emphasis came increasingly to focus on long diagonals and effort.
