PULLING THE WOOL

Only another couple of dozen hits on this very popular blog and I shall be on the 15,000 mark. Hey, not bad for a novice with limited appeal. But I have my loyal supporters who tune in most days, so thank you.

I am fed up to the back teeth with Mourinho and EU In or Out. How much longer have we got to put up with Jose and Boris? The Europe thing could lead me onto the Euro Championships in France but I really should be focussing on the Football League Play offs in England. Wembley's ground staff will be stretched to the limit this weekend coping with three "finals". But before I launch into those (probably tomorrow) I am making the obvious lnk between Jose Mourinho and Australia.

Can anyone get it? Yes, football is fairly obvious, but it is the woolly four legged friends that I am more interested in-the Merino Sheep, a "native" of down under.

They had their origins in Spain and produce a fine, soft wool that is now used in outdoor wear and athletics, as well as other products. 70 beasts arrived in Australia on the "First Fleet" in January 1788 and despite dwindling to only 28 animals they gradually were boosted into large flocks. Why Merino? Some say they are named after a famous pasture inspector from Iberia (is there such a thing), or from the Latin "maiorinus" meaning head or great, like a "leader" or after the 12-13th Century Iberian tribe, the marini.
Interesting isn't it?

Which brings me onto Australia, who are England's "friendly" opponents at the Stadium of Light tonight. Yes, you can see the FA's thinking, by taking to poor old Aussies even further north away from their Autumnal homeland the poor Soccereoos will be a soft touch. (p.s. The ECB have done just the same with the poor old Sri Lankans who have been dragged north to Headingly and Chester-le-Street in our "winter", to play these early test matches on humid, swinging pitches, so that Anderson and Broad can fill their boots.)

The Socceroos have six players presently playing in English football, of whom Adam Federici might be the best known, a goalkeeper with Bournemouth. He had a long spell with Reading and also turned out for Maidenhead Utd, Northwood and Carshalton Athletic on his journey to Dorset!

The others presently turn out at Preston NE (Bailey Wright had a few games with Dandenong Thunder in Victoria before he stepped up), Liverpool (actually Brad Smith is on loan to Swindon Town and has played 16 times for England U20s), Crystal Palace (Mile Jedinak has played over 160 times for CP and has had a spell in Turkey), Crewe (Brad Inman moved to England at 14 years old to trial at Newcastle and has played for the Scotland U19/20s) and QPR (Massimo Luongo is of Italian and Indonesian origin who joined Spurs as a youth but has been with Ipswich and Swindon). There are two Scots in the pile one with Celtic and the other with Ross County.