Phoned Paul Furlong this morning. Our paths have crossed a couple of times over the past few years. He’s always been a player I thought I could use but the timing was never right.
A couple years back Barnet gave him a run of games when he wasn’t getting in the Southend team. He was looking good. Back to his best, even, and I bumped into him at a charity gig at the Dorchester. He loves trying out his French on me, we’ve always had a laugh with that. There was talk of Southend looking to move Stevey Tilson on, and Furlong was wondering if I was interested. Me and Stevey have always been good pals – we ended up in the same hotel in La Manga one summer, the girls got on like a house on fire. Still speak actually – and I thought it would be a bit off me throwing my hat in the ring for his job. As it turns out, Levy was holding out for me at the Lane, and I knew that was worth waiting for.
Anyway, Furlong has been doing a cracking job this year at St Albans City. So good that Barnet have gone and given him the manager’s job over there. Had a quick chat, congratulated him. He’s a class act.
Talking of class acts, Ched’s been unstoppable the past couple of months. I’m praying he doesn’t get injured. His agent was at the ground last week, something to do with a bit more cash for the lad. I told him straight – the board aren’t shifting on the budget. There’s a wage cap in place and the chairman’s fed up with me asking for it to be increased. “My hands are tied,” I said.
I’m not going to lie – we’ve had a keeper issue for the past year. Harry, who’s back at Upton Park, dropped me a line to see if I wanted to take Greeno off his hands. Not going to turn my nose up at that. The lad’s got a bad rep from one mistake. Well, maybe a few more. But Harry said £700k, and Rob’s only 32. No-brainer. The big lad’s doing well.
The national side are doing well. Played five won five in the qualifiers. Anelka keeps coming up with the goods. I pulled him aside in training to see if he was happy with his role at Chelsea. He’s only getting 30-odd minutes a week playing time. Asked him how northern Spain sounded. He laughed and said he wasn’t interested. He’s on £90k a week in London. What I would do with a budget like that…
Top of the league, can’t beat Barca or Real this year, though. Doesn’t matter too much – four losses will still leave us top.
Big Andy up top is putting it about. They don’t like that over here. It’s all pretty pretty, which I can appreciate as much as the next man…with the right players.
It feels like we’re really building something over here. The Brits are all happy – we’re only a couple of hours away from London. If we can get top three and into the CL I’ll be over the moon. We’ve got some top players in the squad. Adrian and Guardado are enjoying their football, too.
