Football talks a good Olympian game; let's see it in deed

The Footballers versus Olympians debate has raged and has quietened down and will rear its head from time to time over the next season.

The problem with football is that it refuses to learn from other sports; it knows it is the Beautiful Game, but thinks that it is the pinnacle of beauty. But it isn't.

I am not going to go into all the things that football should learn from other sports in this post; they will be the subject of many other posts to come.

However, in the Footballers versus Olympians debate, one thing has struck me. The Olympians have never said a word. People in the media and many of us bloggers, tweeters, facebook posters have commented on their behalf: "Weren't they wonderful?", "Fantastic attitude", "Actually apologising to supporters", etc. But I can't recall seeing any quotes from any of the participiants themselves.

Yet those "in the [football] game" have felt the need to speak out: Richard Scudamore, Joey Barton, Gary Neville are a few that spring to mind. And, of course, they're mostly defending their sport. Well, what would we expect? Of course they would.

The problem lies in the very fact that they need to defend their sport, and the behaviour of players, managers and supporters. And they do need to. It's because football's reputation is so woeful by its deeds that it needs to defend itself in words. Prime example: Alan Pardew (a most unexpected culprit) demonstrates his attitude by his deeds (pushing an assistant referee), but then apologises in words afterwards.

There's always been the joke about the not-so-good manager or player, who "talks a good game".

How about those "in the game", cutting the talk, and improving the reputation of football in their actions? Come May next year, let's see if football no longer needs to defends its actions in words.

How do you solve a problem like Wayne Rooney?

"How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Wayne Rooney?
A flibbertigibbet, a will-o'-the-wisp, a clown."
[With thanks - and apologies - to Rodgers and Hammerstein, from The Sound of Music.]

Sent off for England on Friday, Rooney will now miss at least one - possibly two, and maybe even three - games at the start of Euro 2012.

If UEFA decide he should be banned for three games, solving the Rooney problem will be easy - don't take him at all. Let's face it, England only rarely progress even one game beyond the groups at the Euros, so it would be a waste of a squad place to pick Rooney in the hope that we get beyond the group.

At least, following this latest pathetic show of petulance, we've been spared the same old line that we've been bored with for the last eight years: "You've got to remember he's still young." At last the pundits have realised he's not - at 25 - particularly young any more, particularly with younger - yet more mature - colleagues around him; for example, Phil Jones.

Gary Neville says we should stop trying to solve the Rooney problem per se, and solve the wider England problem - which is that we're not very good, and as a result Rooney gets frustrated, leading to such actions. I think he's got a point. We're often too reliant on one person - or at least believe we are - and how many times has that player missed out on the big tournaments? Think Keegan, Brooking, Robson, Gascoigne, Owen, Beckham, Rooney, metatarsals, etc.

The team should be built to play good football, based on a system, not a player. Let Rooney be a cog in a well-oiled wheel, not the oil without which the wheel simply can't turn.