ALAN HUNTE COLUMN (From Warrington Guardian)

ALAN HUNTE COLUMN

WITH football being the huge sport that it is in this country it tends to get a fair bit of coverage in the Warrington Wolves dressing room.

We've got quite a few Manchester United fans in our camp and people tend to jump on the bandwagon don't they. We've got Danny Nutley walking round with Jaap Stam's name and number on his back. He just doesn't care that he gets all the stick in the world off the lads. Of all the players in the United team - the likes of David Beckham, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and even Roy Keane - Danny Nutley picks Jaap Stam. Nobody chooses Jaap Stam, do they? But to the player's credit he has had a great season?

I don't support Man United and I think anyone who doesn't support them, hates them, but you have to admire them. They are a great team and have done really well.

I try not to get too involved with the football talk at Wilderspool as I get bagged because I support Huddersfield Town. It is where my grandma and grandad lived when they came to England so I went to watch a few games when I was a kid.

Scott Wilson, Dean Busby and Ian Knott are United fans too. Some people suggest Knotty looks like Beckham and I think he would love to think he looks like him or Adam Rickitt, the guy who plays Nick Tilsley in Coronation Street. Knotty's a pretty shy lad but we all reckon he does like the comparisons a bit.

Jon Roper is a big Arsenal fan, Steve McCurrie's a Leeds fan but I don't think any of us will be thinking about switching to a soccer career. Before the rugby season started we had a game of five-a-side. There were some absolutely disgraceful shows on offer that day although Scotty Wilson had his claim to fame. He scored an absolutely blinding header, which doesn't happen very often in five-a-side. But we're still sure that the ball hit him rather than him hitting it. For Scott it was SoccerRoo and he lived on it for a while.

There have been some big soccer debates recently. What a silly, silly young man Robbie Fowler was with his goal celebration for Liverpool. You just can't do what he did. From things he has done in the past he seems to be the type of player who likes to get his point across after scoring. But, whatever it was allegedly supposed to mean, it looked shocking. It is not all lads from the pub that go to games - there are families and kids to think of too and you just can't do what he did. He's such a good player but he's spoiling himself.

And what about the England manager's position and whether or not Kevin Keegan should take it on full-time. I think the FA, ideally, want someone full-time. Keegan seems to have pleased pretty much everyone for the moment but non-one will please everyone all of the time. The role is a thankless task for anyone isn't it! It seems to be a case of unless you win the world cup, you can't win in the job. Keegan's a legend and won his first game in charge 3-0. But it is a huge pedestal he has put himself on now. Maybe four games and get out of there is the right thing for him. But if it's going all right, maybe he should take it full-time. He has do do what he thinks is right and he is the only one who can do that.

But I say what about Sport Billy Dean Busby for the England manager's job. He lives with Andy Leathem who has joined Warrington on loan from St. Helens and Gripper, that's Andy's nickname has the Football Manager game on computer. I stayed with them for a few weeks when I first signed for Warrington. I was managing Chelsea but was hopeless at it. But Dean had taken Hull City from something like the third division right to the top so after Keegan's four games there may be an application to the FA from Buzzer.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.