Managerial appointments are the main theme this week, 2 being made in the Premier League, mistaken identity by an employer and a man who couldn’t get any of them. And a terrible penalty thrown in just for good measure.
3. Tammy Abraham
We’ll start off in Poland where England lost on penalties to Germany, there’s no point even making jokes about it anymore. The game finished 2-2 after extra time including a goal from Abraham but his penalty was so bad in the shoot-out that his goal was forgotten in the blink of an eye. England spent almost the whole game sitting back and not creating much while Germany controlled the game but could not find the final touch to their impressive attacking play.
Abraham took his spot-kick after Jordan Pickford had saved a Germany penalty but could not put England in front. His tame penalty was saved by Julian Pollersbeck who really could have thrown a cap on it. If football doesn’t work for Tammy, he could always be a grounds man – he cut so much grass with his shot. Nathan Redmond missed the decisive spot-kick but at least that was a decent effort.
2. Roy Hodgson
Since it was the anniversary of the Iceland defeat on Tuesday, I wanted to mention Roy Hodgson. He’s been over a year without a job and with all the managerial activity in England recently with jobs popping up all the way through the season, you’d have thought Hodgson could’ve found a job by now. It was reported that he had held private talks with Leicester about succeeding Claudio Ranieri but nothing came of it.
Hodgson has since been overlooked for the Hull job (twice), the Southampton job and the Crystal Palace job (where he was favourite for some time). This man cannot buy a job. It seems his reputation has been tarnished with poor showings for England in major tournaments. But BEIN Sports came to Roy’s rescue and offered him a role of a pundit in Qatar during the prestigious Confederations Cup where he can offer his opinions on international teams who have actually achieved something.
1. Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace would’ve certainly been top of this list if they’d have appointed Roy Hodgson. The opted instead for Frank De Boer, the former Ajax and Inter manager who was sacked by the Italian side last season. He’s known for his attractive playing style and has tipped Palace to ‘play like Ajax’. But his employer have the Wally of the Week title because they posted some stats from his career on Twitter but used a picture of his brother, Ronald De Boer. The tweet was quickly deleted but Palace and their PR team were left with egg on their face.