It’s been a minute since we’ve done a soccer roundup. In the spirit of laziness and lack of motivation to come up with something original, we bring it back like BKs and jheri curls. Randy Watson forever.

Honeymoon Over For The Special One?
The regular season hasn’t even started and already Jose Mourinho is catching some heat physically and in print. What the hell have they done to him? Popped collar? Tikka tinge? He probably rides a lime green Vespa with a lime green helmet to and from the San Siro saying “Ciao!” to people as he rides by. Where’s the Jose of old?

There no need for him to become the Italiguese Terry Venebles.

Jose’s appearance isn’t the only thing under the heat lamp. He’s also catching heat from the Italian press for tearing Juventus and former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri a new one the size of the Holland Tunnel.

The Inter coach slammed his Juventus rival by implying he had a loser’s mentality and was “nearly 70 years old” - Ranieri turns 57 in October.

You’ll either find that funny or have the same reaction as the Italian press who are acting like someone’s mother was molested. Comments ranged from “arrogant, offensive and in poor taste” (which isn’t too far off) to “hideous”. Stefano Agretesti of Corriere dello Sport was shocked that such comments would be made in Italy. Apparently he is unfamiliar with his buffoon of a prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who he and his fellow countrymen keep putting back in power.

Keep it up , Jose.

Lalas Doesn’t Have The Skills To Pay The Bills

Everyone’s catching fire in this version of the Roundup. It does feel a bit wrong to tee off on the guy that bought me beers at the Cathedral but we can’t let sauce interfere with our integrity. It’s all we have. Seriously, it is and we don’t have very much. Buy our shit. It’s hot.

Los Angeles Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas’s days could be numbered if reports are correct. The Los Angeles Daily News details the continuing woes of the Galaxy and the increased pressure on Lalas. It seems as though he will end up being the fall guy for the team’s capitulations.

The team atmosphere is “poisonous”. Lalas and manager Ruud Guillit don’t get along. Guillt and Landycakes don’t get along. Beckham’s crew increasingly has more say in what happens in Carson. Nick Green asserts that it was Beckham’s people that hired Guillit, not Lalas. AEG exec Tim Lieweke told all parties involved to get their shit together or risk getting the chop.

To his credit, Lalas knows the writing is on the wall. One thing working in his favor is that Guillit blows up every situation he has stumbled into from Chelsea to Newcastle to the Dutch National Team. No reason why LA should be any different. Lalas has been a management failure everywhere he has worked. They should be failure buddies.

Lalas seems to be more mouth and publicity hound than a GM who knows how to create a successful product on the pitch. It would be unfair to rip him without giving him some credit. When he was GM of the Metrostars (now Red Bulls), he and other team execs came to speak to fans in order to find out what we thought was necessary to make the team better. It’s rare that the management of any professional team would take time out to hole up in a bar to find out what the fans think. Maybe he should stay away from personnel decisions and focus on team outreach and fan development.

Napoli Fan Prefers Cash Over Inter’s Empire Of Dirt

This is a new one. A Napoli fan successfully sued Inter Milan for existential damages after being subjected to “offensive banners and chants” during a match at the San Siro last season.

Inter have been ordered to pay €1,500 to the fan, who has chosen to remain anonymous, after their supporters showed banners at the San Siro calling Naples the “sewer of Italy”. Other banners read: “Ciao cholera sufferers” and “Neapolitans have got tuberculosis” in reference to a crisis in which the streets of the southern Italian city became deluged with rotting refuse for several months following a dispute involving Camorra-run waste disposal service companies, landfill sites and the government.

Never mind the fact that there are actually huge piles of garbage all over Naples. The fan maintained that he was “indignant and deeply hurt”. I fail to see how the condition of his existence was affected by these banners and chants. Any dread or alienation he feels probably comes from the shit show going on in Naples right now. Transcend, bitch.

Ay Dios mio. We just stumbled across this…this…abortion dropped by former Manchester United star Andy Cole in 1999. It’s his debut and hopefully last music single called Outstanding. Hopefully, that’s supposed to be ironic. This stinks so bad it could “knock a buzzard off a crap wagon from 100 yards”.

Outstanding didn’t even break the UK Top 40. Hopefully Sir Alex gave him the hairdryer treatment for making others suffer through this.

This video got me wondering what other footballers got their music on and whether they fared better than Andy Cole. I managed to pull some “old and busted” together for you. Thank me later.

First up is Diamond Lights by Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle from 1987. Glenn Hoddle will always have a special place in my heart. I can’t remember if it’s for starting the Chelsea evolution from also-rans to contenders or his views on the disabled.

Diamond Lights charted at No. 12 on the UK charts. “Not a bad song. Not a good song either.” You have to love Hoddle forgetting to lip sync at 2:42.

The next entry is the English Super Bowl Shuffle known as the Anfield Rap. Liverpool recorded this before the 1988 FA Cup Final. I have no idea why teams don’t record FA Cup Final songs anymore. The songs were always shit but good for a laugh especially when you hated the team.

Geordie boys do anything including “suck sickly sausage rolls” according to Gazza. Paul Gascoigne recorded Fog on the Tyne with Lindsfarne. I certainly don’t want to make fun of alcoholism but maybe seeing this had something to do with his incredible decline from being the future of English football to the sad mess he is today.

Who Ate All The Pies lets you compare the original to the Gazzafied version. We have to agree that the Gazza version is actually miles ahead of the original.

Here’s another Geordie offering from Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan. Doubt he’ll ever sing this to Dennis Wise.

Think Alan Shearer’s going to let Gazza and Keegan take all the glory. Hell no. Here’s the former Newcastle captain singing an emotionless All Night Long. I think Lionel Richie’s job is safe. Yeah jambo jambo!!

Los Angeles Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas is more of an acoustic kind of guy. Here he sings Goodnight Moon. I wonder if this was part of his sales pitch to Goldenballs.

I’ll close this post out on a high note with Fulham midfielder Clint “Deuce” Dempsey who happens to be my favorite US player not just because he shares a name with this blog. You might remember his most recent offering on Setanta. Here’s Don’t Tread with Big Hawk. America, fuck yeah.

If these aren’t enough for you, enjoy the musical stylings of Ruud Gullit, Terry Venables (that’s El Tel to you) and Blackburn’s Morten Gamst Pedersen.

** I just came across this Who Ate All The Pies post listing the top 10 rapping footballers. Enjoy.

It’s not clear whether it’s the sun or bad chicken and waffles but something has made Alexi Lalas talk more crazy than normal.

“There’s no accounting for bad taste,” Lalas said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. “That a segment of the world worships an inferior product in the Premiership is their business. English football now has the haves and the have-nots. It’s just that the Premiership have become so skilled in presentation. They took a page out of American football and so now they have Saturday Showdowns and Super Sundays. I love it. This is high-calibre marketing - taking an inferior product and improving it through packaging.”

“The experts in England talk about David Beckham as if he’s going into semi-retirement. It’s insulting to say Beckham is on his way to Hollywood when he’s coming to play in one of the most competitive leagues in the world. There are a lot of stars who would struggle here.

Apparently Lalas hasn’t watched his own product. Watching MLS games is similar to watching old people fuck. It’s a mediocre product with a few highlights and good players who bounce to Europe as soon as they can except for Primadonovan. The Deuce is all about the growth and expansion of American soccer but don’t get it twisted, it’s still weak compared to the other major leagues around the world.

He does have a point here.

“There’s this delusion that if it’s English then it’s great. But a whole world exists outside of England. That’s reflected in the difficulties they had when everyone ran to the Premiership. Maybe it’s OK for the fan but, for the average development of the players, their game is struggling.”

There is some truth to that but it’s not clear whether he understands the context. Either he’s a great hype man who’s trying to bring attention to the MLS or he’s a delusional ex-player like Eric Wynalda. Either way, we can’t wait to see how he responds when Beckham realizes he’s basically playing in a rec league and his teammates can’t put three passes together without giving it up or falling over.