Yokohama F Marinos struck four times in the first half on their way to a 4-0 thrashing of Ventforet Kofu in the J-League on Saturday.Striker Masashi Oguro struck a brace after midfielder Hiroyuki Taniguchi and forward Kazuma Watanabe had opened up a two-goal buffer as Marinos romped to a comfortable win.
Taniguchi had given his side an 11th-minute lead before Watanabe doubled the advantage six minutes later.
When Oguro provided two more, the second coming five minutes before the interval, the result was sealed and left Ventforet in 12th, just a point clear of the relegation zone.
Jubilo Iwata were similarly impressive early as they waltzed to a 4-1 win over the struggle Avispa Fukuoka.
Ryohei Yamazaki, Ryoichi Maeda and Shuto Yamamoto all struck in the first 35 minutes.
Maeda completed his brace four minutes into the second half to set up a 4-0 lead, although Hideya Okamoto scored a late consolation goal for Avispa Fukuoka, who are without a point and languishing at the bottom of the table.
Urawa Reds came from behind to secure a 2-2 draw against Kashima Antlers.
The Reds are winless in their last five outings but it could have been worse if not for two quick goals in the space of three second-half minutes.
Shunki Takahashi and Mazola pulled two goals back in the 67th and 69th minutes respectively after Daigo Nishi and Chikashi Masuda had given Antlers a 2-0 lead.
Elsewhere, Nagoya Grampus held first-placed Kashiwa Reysol to a 0-0 draw, Gamba Osaka had a brace from Brazilian striker Adriano to thank for their 2-1 win over Albirex Niigata and Vissel Kobe enjoyed a 1-0 win over Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez believes Mauro Boselli is ready to take the Premier League by storm after finally getting off the mark in the Carling Cup.
The Argentinian striker joined the Latics in a £6million summer deal and opened his account with the first goal in Tuesday's 2-0 victory over Swansea City.
Ben Watson's injury-time penalty put a gloss on the scoreline against Martinez's former club.
Boselli had drawn a blank in his six previous appearances, but the Latics chief is confident in the South American's ability to score goals in the top-flight.
He explained:"You can see Mauro is a really confident finisher. A goalscorer in football is expensive and the hardest thing to find.
"He is a real asset to our football club but we need to be patient and fair with him.
"He is coming from a different league, different environment, different culture.
"If you look at the way he has adapted, the work-rate, the way he took the goal, it is very pleasing.
"I am sure Wigan Athletic fans will see the best of him very soon."
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Speaking about the hostile reception he received from 4,500 travelling fans, Martinez added:"Right now I think fans will understand why I had to leave at that time and looking at the foundations they have, it has brought them stability.
"I am glad to see a strong side like Swansea City is ready to compete."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Alex Song certainly represents one of Arsene Wenger’s successes from his adopted youth policy of the past six years. The strong, versatile midfielder has made his presence known in recent years and has earned the right to be in the starting XI every week. His greatest strengths have been in adding some much needed power, security and his own ability to chip in with assists in the final third. But this doesn’t appear to be the Alex Song of a few seasons ago where he emerged as one of the few bright spots in another hugely disappointing season. His lack of real competition and his game which is without discipline for the most part, should come as a sign that this players has lost focus and direction of what his duties on the pitch are.
The score was 2-1 to Arsenal in a January 2007 away game to Liverpool in the Carling Cup. Jeremie Aliadiere and Julio Baptista were running riot against the Liverpool defence when a corner came in and Alex Song threw himself at the ball and bundled it over the line. It was nothing fanciful and certainly an unlikely scorer even on a night that brought nine goals in total. What that goal definitely didn’t represent was the makings of a player who would become integral to this Arsenal side, and one who would leave the majority of fans who called for his premature release to be left in the wrong by a manager who seemingly always knew the player would come good. Alex Song’s goal away to Fenerbahce two years later was a much better representation of the player, as he a volleyed home from close range.
The 2008/09 season was to be Song’s breakout year and the contrasts from two years previous was hugely telling. No longer was there a lost teenager clinging on for dear life to the Arsenal ship as it sailed sometimes unpredictably through games; now we were looking at a man who had grown in strength, confidence and importance to the club. A particularly disappointing season for the club that year certainly left many hoping that the team had indeed found a dominant figure in the middle of the park. Not necessarily a Patrick Vieira, but someone to fill the void nevertheless.
What we saw so consistently that season from Alex Song has definitely waned in recent years, leading recent reports of a switch PSG to receive a decent amount of backing from supporters in a hope that a more disciplined and defensive-minded player would come in and replace. The truth is, on his worst day, Alex Song has become a liability for an extremely fragile Arsenal side; one who are, as a collective, prone to a number of costly mistakes. His tackling is clumsy, he climbs on the backs of attackers who are quick to draw the foul, and his mindset when in possession is almost always wrong, forfeiting the ball to the opposition when a passing option was always on. Of course, he’s not without his positives: often his final ball in the build up to a goal is extremely precise and well taken, and he’s been the creator of a number of Arsenal goals in recent weeks. His tackling in the Champions League is also the highest of anyone in the competition, completing 33 – bringing to light his value to the team when he performs to the best of his ability. His versatility is also greatly welcome to a side where injuries are a part of the furniture at the Emirates, and where teams like Barcelona and Manchester United are doing good things with a squad capable of filling in at a number of different positions.
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The questions and concerns that should rightfully be raised are how much can Alex Song still add to this Arsenal side. With much talk of an overhaul of the squad in the summer, should the Cameroon international be under consideration for a move away from the side. The problem is that there has been too much of a reliance on the player since he made one of the midfield positions his own. Emmanuel Frimpong has been loaned out and has since suffered his second big injury in two seasons, while Francis Coquelin is nowhere near experienced enough to play 20-plus games a season in that role, despite a successful loan spell at FC Lorient last year. Alex Song is a perfect representation of a manager’s belief that strength in depth is not needed: we can see it in the striking options at the club, as well as the full-back and wide options as well. There is too much concern over harming or even upsetting players who are regulars in the first-team and little worry for the annual injury crisis that never misses a beat nor the natural progression towards burn-out when the season hits this time of the year.
The problem is, and we’ve seen evidence of it on a number of occasions, is that Song could quickly return to the position where he’s being carried through games. Not because of his own lack of ability, but rather because no one has coached him in the correct way to dispossess an opponent without putting the team at unnecessary risk. Nor has anyone told him how to recycle possession and keep the ball moving quickly and out of harms way.
It became quite clear that into the second half of Arsenal’s season last year a number of players became passengers. What was most worrying is that a number of them were key figures for the side; players most likely to change a game and put the team back in the driver’s seat. Samir Nasri, Marouane Chamakh, and, to an extent, Cesc Fabregas all become passengers either through burnout, lack of desire, courage or quality.
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It would be unpleasant to see an important player regress in such a way that he becomes surplus to requirements. But in the case of Alex Song, his game and role in the side has resulted in too many nervous moments. He doesn’t sit in front of the back-four as a defensive-midfielder should, rather leaving the team exposed and looking to fulfil his own ambitions further up the field. Where players like Scott Parker and Cheik Tiote have settled in well to their new clubs and work hard for those around them, Alex Song is often lacking in similar qualities; something that will eventually weigh against his value to the team.
At some time around 5:15pm, on Saturday 14th May 2011, Carlos Tevez, captain of Manchester City Football Club, climbed the Wembley steps, shook a few hands, and held the FA Cup aloft. The blue moon had finally risen. City had won their first trophy since 1976. After 30 years of supporting my team, I had witnessed a City player lifting a trophy. It barely seemed real.
The last time City won a cup, I had just spoken my first words, and just learnt to walk. On 28th February 1976, the Four Seasons topped the charts with December ’63. Abba’s Mamma Mia had recently lost its place at the top. It was the days of terraces, rag and bone men, the Football Pink, the hottest summer ever and the first commercial Concorde flight. Margaret Thatcher had taken over the Tory party, but was 3 years away from becoming Prime Minister (remember her?). Elvis Presley was still alive too.
A lot has happened in those 12,858 days. In the period since then, Heath Ledger was born, and died. Computers took over our lives, we got something called global warming and Britain fought over the future of the Falklands, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I still haven’t swum with dolphins.
Thirty five years and we’re still here? One hundred and five domestic trophies were handed out to top-division sides in that time. A few European trophies too. I always console myself with the thought that if City had had the success of United, by now I’d be bankrupt and in the Betty Ford clinic. Small mercies and all that.
The 20th century gave us three historic moments of jaw-dropping poor predictions – Neville Chamberlain declaring peace in our time, the man who said computers would never catch on, and Peter Swales, sat in his seat in the early days of his chairmanship of Manchester City saying “this is easy”.
Easy it was not. One of my first memories was relegation – a fitting way to start my lifelong relationship, my only one. David Pleat skipped across the Maine Road turf, and a generation of disappointment had begun. We went down, we came back up, we went down and further down, we came up and further up, we contested a Full Members Cup Final the day after a Manchester Derby, we had a few days in the sun, but many more in the rain, and we never sat at the top table, and we never won a trophy. This was the team that managed to get relegated on my birthday. Twice.
Continued on Page TWO
The stats for the last three decades make for grim reading. It can come as little surprise that City are the best supported team never to have played in the Champions League. And the list of teams that had played in a cup final since City last did was the ultimate stark reminder of their prolonged failure. The list of teams that had reached a semi-final since City last did (special shout out to Chesterfield) was almost too depressing to read.
I always used to think it was hope that kept a football fan going. The good times that may be just around the corner. But it is the hope that got ultimately destroyed time and time again, until harbouring hope seemed pointless.
As John Cleese’s character Brian Stimpson said in the film Clockwise: “It’s not the despair Laura. I can take the despair. It’s the hope I can’t stand.”
And it’s even harder to stand when the team down the road are hoovering up every trophy in sight.
Hope was a dangerous thing to have as a City fan, as it was always dashed. A quarter final at home to West Ham springs to mind, when our name was “on the cup” before defeat left us in familiar territory.
You don’t support a team to win trophies, unless you are a glory hunter, but if I had known in 1982 that I wouldn’t see my team win a trophy for the next 30 years, I’d have probably changed my allegiance there and then. I have never regretted my choice though. No trophies perhaps, but so many good memories, and so many good friends made in the unique family that is a football club, any football club.
I spent Saturday with many of those friends, from 5am to 4am the following day. Many cried at full time. A couple welled up just from listening to Abide With Me. The pressure of being favourites weighed heavily on many, the pressure to break the barren spell was greater. The release of that pressure at full time, the release of three decades of tension, broken promises, false hopes and near-constant dejection was immense.
When you wait so long for success, when 18 managers have passed through the door, it is inevitable that not everyone made it. Friends and family have passed away before they had the chance to see a City captain lifting up a piece of silver. They never experienced the feeling I had on Saturday afternoon. I wish I could believe they are looking down on us celebrating too, but I can’t. To absent friends, to those that missed this moment, to those that never saw their football team win a trophy, it was undoubtedly for you.
A lot of blues spoke before and afterwards of those that are no longer with us. How they would have loved the game, how they would have spent the day together, how much one game of football meant to them, how they would have loved one more day together to experience what we did at the weekend.
Because days like Saturday are the epitome of what football means to people. Football is not just about the results on the pitch, it is way, way more than that. It is a family, a lifelong affiliation. Saturday showed that. Soppy perhaps, but so very true. That is why Tony Pulis wanted to win the game for his mother who passed away last year. That is why so many wanted their team to win, for parents who no longer stood by their side.
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This is how it devours peoples’ lives, affects their every mood, shapes who they are. Loyalties are passed from father to son (though not in my case, my father being a United fan!), from generation to generation, memories are passed on too. Football is used as pointers for your life. This stupid game of 22 men kicking a pig’s bladder (sorry, synthetic substitute) around a piece of grass has so much to answer for, but so much to give. It is because football fans invest so much time, effort and emotion into their clubs that sometimes it almost matters too much. You are a hostage to your club’s fortunes. All you can do is prey and hope. Even atheists like me have preyed a thousand times in a football ground.
And credit to Stoke fans for staying at the end to support their team, to savour the day for every moment it offered to them, despite the result. I’m not sure I could have done the same. They were a pleasure to spend the day with, unlike the previous round. And credit to Tony Pulis for taking a second Wembley defeat to Manchester City with grace and dignity. They have a European adventure ahead of them, and they will love every minute of it.
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Many in the press wrote about how City’s day would be overshadowed by United winning the league. Their ignorance is laughable. No one spoke of United, and no one cared. Everything rested on our result, everything.
Of course the inevitable recriminations about City buying success have continued, and I am not about to revisit the tedious arguments over how to do things the right way. The fans are now labelled as arrogant, but they are the same friends that were travelling to Lincoln and watching Bury beat us at home just 12 or 13 years ago. Our current owners have run our club with as much class, dignity and thought for the fans as any other owner in my lifetime. Next year my season ticket will cost £460, and tickets for domestic cup ties will be capped at £15 until the quarter-finals. I have never been prouder of my club, its players or its owners. And irrelevant of the money, Roberto Mancini and Yaya Toure will be club legends forever. They have earnt it.
So the monkey is off City’s back. A new and exciting journey begins, and it seems City didn’t kill football after all. Fancy that.
When the BBC Inside Sport posed the question “Can England win the next World Cup?” in a forty-five minute programme earlier this week, many England fans will have looked and despaired in a frank admission that the answer they were looking for was perhaps a relatively routine no. Should this not have been enough to deepen their recent woe, it is hard to envisage the extent to which it intensified upon hearing Steve McClaren being linked with a return to what many have described as the “hardest job in football”.
His England reign which lead to a failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championship left him a humiliated figure and when he left the country to manage FC Twente, it was much to the delight of many. For it was obvious he was a number two from the very beginning of his short tenure and that he lacked the authoritative nature which is required in the quest for glory.
And although his management in Europe has offered a reprieve from his international sins with a league trophy and a ‘masterful’ Dutch accent with FC Twente leading to a spell in Germany with Wolfsburg surely his return is not warranted by such achievements. Even if the FA believe Capello’s replacement needs to be English, then I would hope the options are not as sparse as that.
Trevor Brooking however said: “Steve has done fantastic to get a title. PSV and Ajax are usually the sides in Holland who do that and now Wolfsburg are picking up,” said Brooking.
“It is a big challenge and it is great for an English coach. Terry Venables went abroad and did well, but Sir Bobby Robson was the one manager who went to three countries and was a massive success.
“We have to try and get more English coaches doing that. Sometimes we are a bit lazy with our language. I am watching other coaches and there are people speaking four or five different languages.
“We have to encourage our coaches to do that so that they go abroad and get that experience if they can. They have to do it on merit and Steve has done well.”
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Brooking added: “I think if you asked Steve, he probably wanted that little bit more experience and I think that is why he has gone abroad. Could Steve do the England job again? I am sure if he continues to be a success his name will be in the frame again.”
Brian Barwick described the need for a winner following the catastrophe of the “Wally with the brolly”, someone with a CV which commands respect from both players and fans alike. Yet, after a disaster in Africa there is a call to return to a McClaren type figurehead, a friendlier manager who allows his players more social freedom. Even still, the assumption he is now ready for another try at the England job because of what he has achieved since in other countries is completely incongruous. If he had done well with England and wanted to test himself elsewhere for a few years, fine, but if Capello is deemed a failure, they would only be replacing him with another. His rehabilitation deserves some credit but his ability to manager mediocre sides was never in question and it could also be argued that the Eredivisie is of a weaker standard than the Barclays Premier League in which he managed Middlesbrough.
One thing is for sure, it would take a lot more than the Dutch league title to emasculate the heartache in the rain that night against Croatia and if in the unlikely circumstance that he is appointed again in 2012, the memories would almost certainly come flooding back. That belittling image of McClaren sheltering himself with an umbrella will always live on.
Football fans’ willingness to show their dedication comes in all shapes and sizes. One such way is to splay their dedication over their body in the form of a tattoo. I can understand why somebody might choose to tattoo their footballing allegiance onto their body. Whilst women come and go, a football team is for life. It’s the manly man’s equivalent of getting “I love mom’ yet a tattoo is a big commitment, so it’s important to get it right. As you can imagine, this process isn’t always a success.
Below are the top 10 Newcastle United tattoos to be found on the net – the good, the bad and the plain ugly – click on image below to unveil gallery:
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Have you got a better Newcastle tattoo? Football FanCast would like to invite the readers to submit their own entry via our Facebook Page. The winning entries will go forward to our grand competition to find the best tattoo in the Premier League.
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The Metro is reporting that Italian giant Juventus is looking to move ahead of various English teams to sign highly rated duo Connor Wickham and Phil Jones. Premier League outfits such as Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea have been monitoring both Blackburn defender Phil Jones and Ipswich Town striker Connor Wickham. However, it now looks like Juventus will be the team to make the first move.
Italian sources suggest that Juve sent a crack spy team including general manager Beppe Marotta and technical director Fabio Guild on an intensive scouting mission of England and they reported back with glowing references on the star duo.
Now the fallen Serie A giants are debating putting their faith in the highly rated Englishmen for next season – as they attempt to revive their flagging squad, who are struggling to qualify for Europe. However, any move with be a significant leap of faith by Juventus and Italian clubs in general – because Italian clubs rarely dip into the British talent pool for players.
The impact of Jones and Wickham has caused the Italian side to take notice and now Juventus are considering a life changing double offer for the U21 internationals.
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Harry Redknapp was clearly a frustrated man in the wake of Tottenham’s opening group game against Werder Bremen.
The North Londoners saw a two goal lead vanish in the space of four minutes either side of half time, which saw journalists ask Redknapp whether his team had learnt any valuable lessons from the turnaround.
The Tottenham boss, who was clearly flustered, claimed it was simply just a part of the game that happens from time to time in football.
“No, no, I didn’t learn any lessons today.”
“What lessons can I learn…what can I do?
“What can they do, what can they do; how can they learn lessons…it happens in football.
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“We always told about lessons. Did we learn any lessons…is this a lesson in Champions League football? It happens in football…” (BBC)
If it’s true that some things never change – a leopard doesn’t change its spots, Big Sam will always ferociously chew gum, Mark Hughes doesn’t lack ambition – then it is no surprise that Sir Alex Ferguson was playing mind games after all and bad things will always come in three.
When Paul Scholes was named among the substitutes for the Manchester derby in the third round of the F.A Cup, much was made of it in the wake of the final whistle: “It took all the attention off City’s home record and the bookmakers’ odds and switched all the attention to Paul Scholes and Manchester United ,” said former Red Devil Nicky Butt, before eluding to the talent Ferguson possesses in the mind game department, “It was a great little bit of psychology.” However, some sections of the footballing world were questioning why everything Sir Alex Ferguson says or does has to be interpreted as part of an elaborate game of wit and mental strength.
For a short while my head had been turned and I began to see Ferguson for what he was: just a manager. It was a silly mistake to doubt the psychological capabilities of Sir Alex though: “I don’t know how we managed it,” said Ferguson, commenting on how they kept Scholes’ return quiet, “we registered him on the Friday, and thought somehow it would get out. But we didn’t let any of the players know, simply because of the impact value.” There you have it: he was playing mind games. “We were going away from home in a very difficult FA Cup tie against City. We had 5,000 fans at that end of the ground and as soon as they knew his name was on the team sheet they were fantastic, there was a great response.”
Another thing that hasn’t changed this season is all things coming in triple headers and football has, yet again, caused controversy with great debate, threefold. To begin with, there was the first of three race rows; secondly, football lost three legends of the game; and lastly, since the New Year, three refereeing decisions have sparked considerable discussion unparalleled this season. Luis Suarez , John Terry and a Liverpool “fan” were the culprits in the race row and have all managed to be dealt with in three separate ways: the Uruguayan was punished with an 8-game ban by the F.A, John Terry ’s case was handed to the Crown Prosecution Service and the Liverpool fan responsible for the racist remarks to Oldham’s Tom Adeyemi was arrested. Three cases, similar in nature, dealt with in three different ways due to subjectivity.
Back in 2011, during the last week of November, football lost one of its greats: Gary Speed. His death came on the back of his appearance on the BBC’s Saturday football show, Football Focus and a successful year, which, posthumously, saw his side announced as the best climbers in the FIFA International rankings from 116th to 48th, collecting the most points of any international side in 2011 – 330. Socrates, the Brazilian playmaker who achieved huge playing success in the early 80s, as well as qualifying a doctor, died a week later and within a month of this early passing the former Everton and Liverpool defender, Gary Ablett died aged 46.
With unwanted negatives clouding what has been a brilliant season on-the-pitch in England, the New Year ensured the controversy would continue at the first possible opportunity: with City facing United in the F.A Cup third round, the 12 minute mark brought what may go on to be the most talked about sending off of the season and a constant benchmark comparison for every single sliding challenge to be made between now and May.
As Luis Nani burst down the left wing for Manchester United, Kompany came charging across from centre-back and with two feet lunged off the ground, scissor-legged the ball away from the Portuguese, as he hurdled the oncoming boots of the Belgian. Foy gave the Manchester City captain a straight red and immediate debate began over the referee’s interpretation of the rules and whether his decision was justifiable.
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As with any event concerning Manchester United and officials, the result and general consensus has been tarnished; however, according to Nigel Reo-Coker , opinion is divided because of the subjectivity in football: “I don’t really think there are clear enough guidelines to know how you can tackle in the modern game. Even the powers-that-be don’t really know the true rules about tackling themselves. If you speak to people, 50% will say [Kompany’s] is a sending off and 50% will say it’s not. I thought it might have been a sending-off but others disagree.” One man that felt it was not a sending off is Graham Poll, “The red card was harsh and unnecessary — refs are advised to avoid controversy and not to go looking for trouble. Chris Foy managed neither on Sunday.” It takes three yellow cards for Poll to send someone off anyway, so we can that with a pinch of salt.
However, if his justification is to be taken and strictly applied across the board, then surely Glen Johnson ’s two-footed challenge on Joleon Lescott was a sending off, yet a foul wasn’t even given: “Vincent Kompany should not have dived in, but he was in control of his body movement, unlike Frank Lampard for Chelsea against Wolves, which resulted in a yellow card but was a much more serious offence.”
When Glen Johnson made his two-footed challenge, which Dalglish claims wasn’t a challenge, he wasn’t in control: his eyes were closed and that isn’t being in control. “Glen’s tackle is not a problem for us because there was no one directly in front of him. He hasn’t come in from behind, so I don’t see the problem,” the Liverpool manager said. “There’s always an interpretation of what the tackle is but I would have thought that, if it’s a tackle, then there has got to be a challenge. If I’m sliding in to clear the ball and there’s no challenge, then it’s not a tackle, is it?”
Dalglish’s point lies in the difference between Kompany’s starting and finishing point and Johnson’s: Kompany comes out of a centre-back position, diagonally running towards Nani and lunges towards him. If Nani didn’t hurdle the oncoming challenge, Kompany’s finishing point would’ve been the ankles of Nani . On the other hand, Glen Johnson sprints forward out of right-back and, with a two-footed flight path, intercepts a Lescott-destined pass: his finishing point in no way affects Lescott who was standing to the right of Johnson’s path. However, according to Poll, a lack of control displayed by Johnson should mean that he is sent off.
Yet, the subjective nature continues to create debate and stir controversy, as will this post. Rio Ferdinand believes there is no argument: “I don’t understand why this debate is still going on,” said the United and England centre-back, “It’s stated clearly in the rule book, we get told before the season when all the referees go around the different clubs: a two-footed tackle is a red card. It’s as simple as that – It baffles me that there’s any argument or debate around the issue.” Yet that isn’t the case: whether it is a one-footed or two-footed challenge, for a red card, serious foul play must occur, meaning “with excessive force” and “endangering the opponent’s safety.” Yet, both of those conditions are subjective and that is where the debate and argument is allowed to flourish.
Either way, the referees will be scrutinised for their decisions whether they get them right or wrong. On Sky Sport’s Soccer Saturday, Matthew Le Tissier said of Chris Foy, “he’s not one of our best referees, he’s been involved with some high profile mistakes,” whilst Charlie Nicholas said that Lee Mason was, “lucky it was a centre half [that Johnson came in on], a winger would’ve had his leg snapped.” The argument will go on and unfortunately, without standardising the rules and objectifying the necessary conditions, players will continue to see red amidst the mist of subjectivity.
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Continuing our look into the foreign wags that put the Premier League ones to shame…
Francesco Totti is a Serie A legend, one of the greatest Italian footballers of modern times. A player of his calibre certainly needs a WAG of equally high quality and that’s exactly what Totti has got in the shape of Ilary Blasi. Ilary Blasi, aka Mrs Francesco Totti, used to be a model and showgirl before settling down to the life as a wife of a professional footballer and World Cup winner.
She has caught the attention of the Italian press and public, having featured in Italy Offside three times in their regular WAG feature. But just in case you’ve not had the pleasure of seeing Ilary Blasi before then here she is and make sure you look out for her on TV when you’re next in Italy on your holidays!
Click on Miss Blasi below to see her in all her glory