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Tuesday 19 May 1998
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 News 6 
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WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN
Only 22 Days To Go!
GULLIT ATTACKS PRESS PRESSURE ON HODDLE
RUUD GULLIT believes that the man who brought him to Chelsea, Glenn Hoddle, is under more pressure than almost any other coach in next month's World Cup.
Talking exclusively to Football365, Gullit said: England have a chance to win it, but there is probably more pressure on Glenn than on almost any other coach in the World Cup because of the mentality that the English have. The press here is very fast to praise you when you win and condemn you if you lose. When you draw with Italy, you're going to win the World Cup, but when you lose to Chile, you should sack the manager or drop this player or that player. It's crazy and the expectations you put on the team are crazy, but that seems to be the English way.
The deposed Chelsea player/manager - who refused to answer questions about his former club - went on to plead for responsible press coverage of England's campaign, claiming that players can be destroyed by bad publicity while in the unfamiliar surroundings of the world's biggest tournament.
The press have got to realise that the squad going to France is more than just 22 players and the coaches, he said. When you are at a World Cup, you are confined within the team headquarters so you want to know what is happening back home and how people are feeling. If the press are nervous or critical of this or that, it transmits to the players and makes them nervous or negative, so people have to show a bit of responsibility and not make everything into a cheap headline.
For instance, people will say that Glenn should be worried about Alan Shearer because he didn't have a very good FA Cup Final. But everyone knows that you can't do anything without service and Shearer didn't get any. He looks fine to me, but these are the sort of thing the press blows up into a story and then it becomes a crisis.
The former AC Milan star also revealed his reservations about Holland's World Cup challenge, saying: I hope we will advance in the tournament, but there is a question mark at the back. Apart from Jaap Stam, who has just gone to Manchester United, there is no-one who is a really recognised defender and perhaps that will be a problem for them. I can't see the winners coming from outside Germany, Brazil, Italy or Argentina, but I hope I am wrong.
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VOGTS SET TO BENCH KLINSMANN
JURGEN KLINSMANN will be Germany's captain at the World Cup Finals, but isn't certain of a place in the starting line-up.
The former Tottenham and Inter Milan striker has been part of the teams that won Italia 90 and Euro 96, but coach Berti Vogts has hinted the 33-year-old will have to fight for his place, claiming: "Every player must accept that sometimes he will be left on the bench."
Klinsmann has won 101 caps but Vogts is expected to go into France 98 with Udinese's Oliver Bierhoff and Ulf Kirsten of Bayer Luverkusen, who were this season's top scorers in the Italian and German leagues with 27 and 22 goals respectively, as his first-choice strike force.
Bierhoff, who has scored 13 times in 22 internationals including both goals in the Euro 96 Final win over the Czech Republic, is set to join AC Milan for £8m this summer. Klinsmann's club future is still undecided, he will quit international football after France 98 but has hinted at a move to Major League Soccer in America next season.
CLOCK TICKING
FOR ZAGALLO
BRAZIL coach Mario Zagallo is talking down his team's chances at the World Cup, warning that a lack of preparation time could ruin the favourites' bid to retain the title they won in America four years ago.
Zagallo's plans have been hit by injuries and the absence of players still involved in the European leagues - only nine players showed up for his first pre-tournament training camp. Never was the preparation time this short, he said. Only three weeks is not enough. We're going to play in Europe, we have little time and no team will want Brazil to win its fifth world title.
Our main challengers will be England, Argentina, Italy, Germany, and France with Norway a possible dark horse, but none of these teams are playing very well at the moment. France are dangerous because they are playing at home and Italy because they get better throughout the competition. But the surprising team could be our group rivals Norway."
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BULGARIA STAR
‘HIT REPORTER'
BULGARIA'S midfield playmaker Krassimir Balakov will go into the World Cup with the threat of legal action hanging over him after allegedly beating up a German journalist as his team Stuttgart flew to Sweden for last week's Cup-Winners' Cup Final against Chelsea.
Reporter Holger Gayer said he was slapped and head-butted by Balakov, who took exception to a piece he wrote, during the flight that took the Stuttgart squad and journalists to Stockholm for the match, which they lost 1-0 to a Gianfranco Zola goal. Now Gayer's employers, the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper, have asked prosecutors to open an inquiry into the alleged incident.
Balakov, who is vital to Bulgaria's World Cup hopes, admits that there was an argument but insists he did not hit the writer. A Stuttgart spokesman said: "Nobody knows if it happened, because nobody saw it, but we believe the player, who has denied it.
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