Who needs Mawhinney when we have men like Brooking?

Updated: 21:10 BST, 15 November 2008

Brian Mawhinney is used to getting his own way. When his Lordship barks, people jump. At least, they do if they know what's good for them. That's the way he has always operated. Unpopularity has never troubled him.

At the Northern Ireland Office in the late Eighties, an 公式の／役人 述べるd him as 'not an 平易な person to like'. At the Department of Health in the 早期に Nineties, a civil servant said: 'He se emed to enjoy いじめ（る）ing them [公式の／役人s] in 前線 of others.'

Scroll 負かす／撃墜する for more

Brian Mawhinney

A 大臣の 同僚 once 発言／述べるd:? 'He is a 凶漢. He has a 黒人／ボイコット and white 見解（をとる） of life, and there's a sneering トン that is never far below the surface. He's not what you'd call a nice man, but he does earn a lot of 尊敬（する）・点.'

Now, I について言及する these 事柄s because it helps to have some idea of Mawhinney's background and temperament if we are to understand the 動機s behind his attack on Sir Trevor Brooking.

When he entered the world of football politics as chairman of the Football League, Mawhinney was 明確に delighted to have discovered a 職業 which gave him a public profile and indulged his かなりの ego, yet made so few 知識人 需要・要求するs.

This was because he 設立する himself の中で a number of people for whom the 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 'second 率' would 代表する outrageous flattery.

True, some of them had acquired wealth, while others had carved out positions of petty 力／強力にする. But a man who had once 達成するd 閣僚 status could run effortless （犯罪の）一味s around them. It was the football professionals who were the problem.

Unlike Mawhinney, they understand the game, in all its strengths and virtues, its faults and its follies. And the best of them 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる what is needed to 増強する those strengths and 演説（する）／住所 those faults. They know that the 技術s gap has to be の近くにd, that youngsters have to be expertly taught, that clubs have to 配分する 適する, long-称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 基金s to this 仕事. They know all these things and they look to Trevor Brooking to 支持する／優勝者 their 原因（となる）, because he understands best of all.

Here I should 宣言する an 利益／興味: having known Brooking for 30 years, and having spent three educative years on the 会議 of Sport England when he was its 議長，司会を務める, I believe him to be one of the most 原則d and talented individuals in British public life.

When, as the FA director of football 開発, he spoke to 無線で通信する Five Live last week, he was 単に 強調ing what the 国家の game knows to be true. 'I want to have an 影響 with the 5-11 and 11-16 age groups, that's where the 湾 is with the 残り／休憩（する） of the world,' said Brooking.

'We can't get the money to support our 青年 programmes. We have been treading water for two and a half years. There's more money in the game than ever before, but I don't see us in 10 years' time having capitalised on it.'

He is 熱心に aware that the clubs feel no 責任／義務 for the 国家の team.

'They are bringing in kids from overseas, so it could be said that the FA is 基金ing overseas youngsters,' said Brooking.

'For me, that's a farce.

'It's hugely 失望させるing for kids at English clubs to be told they're not good enough at 16 because of the number of overseas youngsters filling 学院s and centres of excellence.'

He knows that such 見解（をとる）s are regarded with 深い 疑惑 by the 控訴s who 支配（する）／統制する English football, so much so that he has been 否定するd 接近 to FA 会合s at which 問題／発行するs of 青年 開発 were discussed.

So Brooking has few illusions, yet even he must have been shocked by the 本人自身で off ensive トン of Mawhinney's retort.

'Sir Trevor has been banging on about this for two and a half years. 率直に, it feels like longer,' he chuntered. 'The Football League is running out of patience with him.'

Patronisingly, he referred to Brooking as 'an 従業員' and 追加するd:

'率直に, in my 公正に／かなり long experience of public life and public 事件／事情／状勢s, I don't have much time for people who so 公然と criticise their 雇用者s.

'This was pomposity beyond price. This was Captain Mainwaring reborn. Yet, his 決意 to 運動 out Brooking is unmistakeable: 'Trevor was an iconic footballer,' he says.

'But 非，不，無 of us must assume that because we were very good in one 職業 that we are very good in all 職業s.'

This from the 政治家，政治屋 who was chairman of the 保守的な Party in the 労働 地滑り year of '97. Self-認識／意識性 is 明確に not his forte, so let us （一定の）期間 out the facts. If football should lose his Lordship, the game would 回復する before the day was done. But if it were to sacrifice Sir Trevor Brooking, then the 損失 would be incalculable. I leave the いじめ（る）ing Brian Mawhinney to draw his own 結論s.

Nine Wimbledon 肩書を与えるs and it's come to this...

BY THE depressing 基準s of trash television, the cast was predictable. It 含むd two or three 空気／公表する-長，率いるd WAGS, poor old Esther Rantzen, pathetically 捜し出すing the last rays of limelight, the perma-tanned grotesque 指名するd Kilroy-Silk, a 恐ろしい selfpromoter called Brian Paddick and three others known only to their families and の近くに friends. But then they told us that Martina Navratilova had also agreed to appear on 'I'm A Celebrity...'.

And we were shocked. You see, unlike the 残り／休憩（する）, Martina is nothing so trite as a 'celebrity'. She has 現実に 達成するd things; nine Wimbledon （テニスなどの）シングルス 肩書を与えるs, 20 Wimbledon 肩書を与えるs in （テニスなどの）シングルス and （テニスなどの）ダブルス, 18 Grand 激突する （テニスなどの）シングルス 肩書を与えるs, and so on. Many would argue that she is the finest tennis player who ever 選ぶd up a racquet. Yet that tells only half the story.

For, in the course of her 52 years, Navratilova has taken some important stands. She left her native Czechoslovakia at the age of 18 and became a vigorous 選挙運動者 against Soviet 共産主義. She （機の）カム out as a gay woman in 1981, at a time when the 気候 was 敵意を持った and the consequences difficult. Over the years, she has become a 熱烈な spokesperson for civil 権利s. In short, she is a woman of かなりの 実体.

Yet now she takes her place と一緒に has-beens, wannabes and never-quitemade- its; a menagerie of D-名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） deadbeats, all of them eager to immerse themselves in witchetty grubs or 軽食 on a bushrat.

Anything to appear on television, to get themselves talked about, to Be Famous. Navratilova needs 非，不，無 of this. She has known 広大な／多数の／重要な fame for most of her life, so cheap celebrity can have no 控訴，上告. And as a millionaire many times over, she can have no need of the money which …に出席するs such public humiliation. We can only assume that, like daft Esther, she has 行方不明になるd the limelight, that she wants us to know she is still around.

And so, tired of 存在 an inspiration to millions and a 非常に高い icon of modern sport, she 捜し出すs to become the spiritual 相続人 to Joe Pasquale, Phil 'Tuffers' Tufnell and Christopher Biggins. Eighteen Grand 激突するs, nine Wimbledons and now, just かもしれない, 勝利者 of 'I'm A Celebrity...'. It is not the way we 手配中の，お尋ね者 to remember Martina Navratilova.

The last thing England want is an angry Aussie

BACK in 1994, Alan Hansen looked at the Manchester 部隊d team of Beckham, Scholes, Giggs et al and 発表するd: 'You'll 勝利，勝つ nothing with kids.' Almost 20 years before that, the England cricket captain Tony Greig had 配達するd an incautious 判決 on a West Indies 味方する which 含むd Richards, 持つ／拘留するing, Roberts and Lloyd. 'I ーするつもりである to make them grovel,' said Greig.

England lost the その後の 実験（する） series 3-0. I 解任するd those famously misguided prophecies last week, when the former En （分泌する為の）腺 all-rounder Dominic Cork 宣言するd: 'Australia will be there for the taking in next summer's Ashes.'

I also remembered an afternoon in 大西洋 City, when a sadly deluded 闘士，戦闘機 started to taunt the young and 破滅的な マイク Tyson at the 重さを計る-in for their heavyweight fight. His 経営者／支配人 pulled him aside. 'やめる that!' he hissed. 'Don't make him angry!' The 闘士，戦闘機 was knocked out in two 一連の会議、交渉／完成するs. I 申し込む／申し出 the tale to Dominic Cork. As a history lesson.