Craven Cottage Newsround

The Guardian reports that Liverpool have secured a lease to leave Anfield and move a few hundred yards to a new stadium. This is getting pretty serious; soon we won’t have any of the old grounds left.

This has happened in America, where all but three of the game’s famous old baseball stadiums have been torn down, replaced, and in some cases re-replaced. The biggest wave of replacements came in the 70s, when a series of soulless concrete constructions were built. Since then, most of these have been replaced with mock-retro efforts that are, you guessed it, all looking the same as each other.

Meanwhile, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium remain three of the most exciting places to watch a game. Fans flock to see the games at these places, while the newer, bigger grounds are often not full and lack the atmosphere that was once taken for granted.

To an extent it’s happened over here. The Dell, the Baseball Ground, Highbury, Ayrsome Park, Roker Park, and even Wembley… there are more too. These grounds have all been improved with new homogenous stadiums that are quite exciting at first, but after a while all feel the same and entirely lack the history of their precedents. This is part of what I love about Fulham, that Craven Cottage is an authentic football stadium in a residential area with ricketty old stands (particularly in the Haynes Stand where I sit) and a wonderful atmosphere - not necessarily loud, but a great vibe. They called Highbury a library, but I watched games there on occasion and you could feel the damn place in your bones. Wembley was the same. The feeling of first arriving at the old place was extraordinary, that long walk up Wembley way, the surprise that the pitch is a lot smaller than you thought, and the knowledge that players from Puskas to Platt had all had magical moments there. What will the new stadium have? Multiplex at least saved us from having Bon Jovi christen the thing, but if it’s not Bon Jovi today it’ll be James Blunt tomorrow. And Anfield? Well, there’s a memory or two that’ll go with that old place isn’t there? Holy smokes.

There are no original thoughts here. I just can’t believe we (we as a people, not we as Fulham fans) are so quick to throw away the very things that make the game what it is. That’s not me being sentimental either, the arenas in which the games are player matter, and soon they’ll all be the same. Are the extra millions worth it? In the short term they might be useful, but I can’t see any way that we gain as much as we lose.

Moral: appreciate Craven Cottage while we have it!

Crouch is at it again, and while he still doesn’t look like a footballer he’s certainly playing the part with some skill now. At some point people are just going to have to shut up and admire the goals. If he was 6′1 and built like Alan Shearer we’d all be talking about our great new striker.

Hargreaves had another sound game, Gerrard looks really at home, and the back four was good enough.

The interesting conundrum at the moment is Stewart Downing. People just aren’t sure about him. On the one hand, he has a happy knack of being involved with goals and chances. If he’s making good chances each game he’s worth his place, never mind a lack of Lennon-pace, the game’s about goals and if he makes them he plays. On the other hand though, games like Wednesday’s serve to remind us that he’s not the full package. His lack of pace did show, his touch seemed to have deserted him, and he looked extremely ordinary. And now people are saying that Joe Cole should walk back into the team when he’s fit again. Maybe he should, but I don’t think it’s that simple.

Yes, you know where I’m going with this.  Both players above were hugely inconsistent but ultimately very valuable England footballers.   Chris Waddle won 62 caps with a series of displays that frustrated a nation. We all knew that Waddle was a special player, he showed us every week for Newcastle, Spurs and Marseilles. But with that England shirt on he sometimes turned ordinary, and despite a sparkling performance here and there (he was excellent in the WC Semi 1990) his international career was not what it could have been.

Same goes for Barnes to an extent, although he was arguably even more frustrating. After That Goal against Brazil we expected him to become a world beater, and his Liverpool form was at one point somewhat otherwordly. That Liverpool team with Aldridge, Barnes and Beardsley was nigh on unstoppable, and Barnes was the team’s best player. But for England? Boos, mainly, despite 79 caps and generally good play. Boos from the frustration that somehow we weren’t seeing the real Barnes, because the real Barnes would have scored a wonder goal every week and the one we got seem somehow less than himself.

Stuart Downing is arguably not in the same class as either of these two. He’s a different sort of player but he already has a proven track-record of making goals, and lots of ‘em. He can be a hugely important England player (he set up our goals against Greece, remember) and shouldn’t be discarded so quickly. And he won’t be, because his manager is a believer.  Left wingers have a hard time of it for England, it must be something to do with the Feng Shui of the football pitch. But he’s worth having around.   We must be patient, accept the odd iffy game, and remember all the good things he does when the game goes his way.  I’m fairly sure that Stuart Downing is worth playing in the England team, but he needs games to prove himself.