I’d been at Leeds since I was 14, seeing the same faces day in and day out. The move was just like a breath of fresh air.”Robinson learned of his selection for the Poland game at lunchtime on the day of the game. He had not been expecting the call, Sven Goran Eriksson having publicly backed James after the Vienna match, and was grateful to the man he replaced for his attitude and assistance.”David was brilliant with me,” Robinson said. When a goalkeeper has goals put past him every week it doesn’t do your confidence any good and it doesn’t look good for you.”The move has given me a fresh start, a new challenge, new people to impress. Tottenham have defied expectations to climb to fifth place in the Premiership under Jacques Santini’s management, while Robinson and his defence have conceded just three goals in eight matches.Last month, moreover, Robinson was given his first start in a competitive England match, replacing James against Poland after the Manchester City man’s error-strewn performance four days earlier against Austria. After his sound performance in Katowice it would be a surprise if he was not handed the jersey for the World Cup qualifiers against Wales at Old Trafford on Saturday and away to Azerbaijan next Wednesday.”I’m playing as well as I have done for a long time,” Robinson said “It helps playing in a Tottenham team that’s doing well When I was at Leeds things weren’t going right for us. Twenty-four is no age for a goalkeeper, but until he moved to Tottenham Hotspur this summer Paul Robinson might have wondered where his career was going.
His club, Leeds United, were falling as quickly as their debts were rising, while the large frame of David James stood in the way of his international ambitions. By having a screw inserted in my foot, the bone will set in place and heal a lot quicker. I’m still looking at another six weeks from now, but the operation isn’t because of a new problem. It’s just a way of getting me fit sooner.”Gerrard’s Anfield team-mate Harry Kewell has also suffered an injury setback as he looks to kick-start his season.The winger is a doubt for Australia’s Confederations Cup qualifying tie with the Solomon Islands on Saturday as he struggles with a groin injury.Kewell has travelled to the southern hemisphere to join the team for the two-legged fixture, but is expected to miss out on the first encounter, with coach Frank Farina likely to save him for the second leg.The former Leeds player has been undergoing eight hours of treatment on his groin every day since arriving in Brisbane and missed training on Tuesday.. “No one likes to have to go into hospital for an operation, but if it’s going to get me back playing on schedule it’s better for me.”I spoke to the surgeon yesterday [Tuesday] and he explained that if I just left the bone to heal normally I could have been looking at another eight weeks out. Gerrard insists he will be back in action in six weeks after undergoing the operation to correct the injury picked up in last month’s match with Manchester United.The 24-year-old is expecting surgery will speed up his rehabilitation rather than delay it.”In a way it’s good and bad news for me,” he said. Steven Gerrard will have surgery on his broken metatarsal bone to prevent further delay to his recovery.
No one is scaring anybody, but John will change that.’Gordon Strachan, his manager at Coventry.’Of course Hartson has this tough, Welsh, manly exterior and he doesn’t want to show it [but] the image he has on the field of play is not how he really is.’Jonathan Barnett, Hartson’s agent.. But Hartson saved West Ham from relegation.’Bobby Gould, his former Wales manager.’We need someone who will make the other side worry We are not giving that aura. He is the best finisher I have ever worked with.’Terry Burton,Hartson’s manager at Wimbledon.’He would put his head in the blades of a combine harvester if that’s what it took to get a goal.’Joe Kinnear, Hartson’s manager at Wimbledon.’People were saying jeepers, creepers when Harry Redknapp paid £5m for him Some people thought Harry had gone crazy. I was angry at the time, but all friends fall out.’Berkovic, later.’He’s a special talent. “I remember years ago sitting at home watching the rugby in the Five Nations, as it was then.
Whenever Wales played France or Scotland, they were big games but it was the game against England that was always the biggest. It was the one we all said we had to win and it’s the same in football.”Even when Brazil or the world champions go to play England they – the media – build England up so big. In the eyes of the people of England, they should win every game, whoever they are playing.”THE WELSH BATTERING RAM WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT HARTSON’If my head had been a football, it would have been in the back of the net.’Eyal Berkovic, Hartson’s former West Ham team-mate, on the training-ground incident in which Hartson kicked him in the head.’John is just like me We are of the same spirit. The Welsh sports minister, Alun Pugh, has already written to the BBC’s director general complaining of the corporation’s “England-centric” build-up.”I don’t really know why the rivalry is so intense,” Hartson remarked.