As the final whistle blew at White Hart Lane last night, two things struck me; firstly an overwhelming feeling of relief, and secondly the realisation that Sandro Ranieri Guimarães Cordeiro is a hell of a player. The big midfielder had followed up his impressive display at the San Siro with an even better one in the home leg. Indeed, it was only a matter of time before ‘Sandro’ was trending on Twitter (along with ‘White Hart Lane’ and ‘WHL’ due to yet another electric atmosphere under the lights in N17) and it seemed as if everyone who watched the match was in agreement that the young Brazilian had turned in an individual performance of real quality... well, everyone that is apart from Matt Hughes of The Times who awarded him 5 out of 10 for his performance and said of him:

“Left out of Tottenham's 25 -man squad for the group stages, he looked out of his depth, giving the ball away frequently and conceding several needless free kicks as his side were overrun.”

I’ve got a real problem with football journalists and this just irked me so much that I thought I’d have a bit of a moan whilst we’re on the subject. It seems as though these guys just roll up to a match, put their feet up, decide what they're going to write before the game has even finished, file their copy and then go and tuck into the complimentary sandwiches. A couple of years ago, I made a decision to stop reading anything written about football in a newspaper by anyone who hasn’t played the game professionally. Granted many former players may have their columns ghost-written, but they offer an insight into the nuances and behind-the-scenes aspects of the game that your average hack just isn’t able to. The way I see it, why should I care what some ex-Media Studies student - who’s probably just brown-tongued his way into a cushy job where he’s paid to watch football - has to say about the game? I’ve played a bit of football and watched loads of football and am quite able to figure it out for myself thank you very much.

I think it is worth pointing this disgraceful excuse for journalism out to anyone who may have missed it. Not that it should come as any surprise, what with the dearth of quality football journalists at work these days. I actually think it’s a British thing. You only have to watch that awful shitstorm of a programme, The Sunday Supplement (every Sunday on Sky Sports... not that I’m recommending it) to see why British football journalism is in such a state. Four objectionable cunts sitting around a table talking bollocks and laughing at their own shitty, unfunny quips is about as good as it gets, and these are supposed to be the best we've got, never mind no-marks like Matt Hughes. Contrast them with some of the intelligent, articulate and well-informed foreign journos around at the moment, namely Rafael Honigstein, Fernando Duarte, Philipe Auclair, Guillem Balague (and to a lesser extent, Gabriele Marcotti... smug and self-important as he may be) and it makes you want to weep. Those guys are across all levels of football in all parts of the World and can hold their own when it comes to talking and writing about English football. Can you imagine any of those tosspots off The Sunday Supplement going to Germany, Brazil, France, Spain or Italy and trying to tell them about their football? I don’t think so.

Anyway, that’s the end of my rant. Suffice to say, Matt Hughes is an idiot. I should point out that I actually quite like Patrick Barclay... maybe he can give Matt a much needed clip round the ear for us next time they meet in the office. By the way, at this point I would normally include a link to the article, but Rupert Murdoch charges £1-per-day to access The Times online content and only a fucking idiot would pay that.

Find me on Twitter as Mike___Hunt

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