No baby Bentleys at Shrewsbury till one of us wins Euro Millions, says Ben Herd

Ben Herd / Ben Herd / 08 October 2008 / 1 Comments Free £25 Bet

Shrewsbury's ever-present full-back Ben Herd on the man they call JFK, a crucial time in Michael Owen's career and why he'll be watching Argentina v Uruguay at the weekend.

The past week has been one of the most refreshing insights into football management in recent times. Joe Kinnear, now dubbed 'JFK' by the press, blew his lid in a press briefing, swearing no less than 52 times. One thing's for sure, he's certainly taken the limelight off his beleaguered Newcastle squad. Kinnear is definitely a throwback to the old school way of management.

The 'Crazy Gang' has long been extinct; I suppose Kinnear's management style has been replaced by more studious types of managers such as Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger. It's funny, I was watching ESPN's all-time Top 20 football managers and they had snippets of some of the lesser-known, lower-league managers of years gone by, "offering" players out at half time - that's a far cry from Wenger's team talks I would imagine.

It's good to see some character restored to pre and post-match interviews instead of the usual diplomatic mundane answers. Looking back at my own career, I've come across a complete range of styles and personalities. From my youth team days, with Bristol City manager Gary Johnson's brother's mad approach to get you geed up for a game, right through to my more philosophical current manager, Paul Simpson.

My new Gaffer is definitely from the new school of thought; his approach is calmer than my previous manager, the latter definitely one from the old school. Don't get me wrong, he had the ability to motivate players, just in a more confrontational way. For me personally, I find the softer approach from the Gaffer far more motivational than the harder approach I previously had.

Not only did it seem that no-one wanted the Newcastle United job, but they then go and appoint an interim manager serving a touch-line ban and to make matters worse their talismanic striker Michael Owen is left out of the latest Fabio Capello England squad. For the time being, morale must be quite low around St James' Park. I believe that this can turn out one of two ways for Owen and in fact, Newcastle. Owen will be even more motivated to impress Capello and his coaches by scoring the goals to lift Newcastle up the table, or his confidence will be knocked to an extent where he will find it increasingly more difficult to do what he has done all his career: score goals.

Never having met the player himself, I can only go by what I've seen of him on the TV, like most people. Owen strikes me as a resolute character and has a steel about him that, in spite of adversity, will ensure he sees it as an opportunity to re-establish himself as England's number one striker, bearing in mind he's only 10 goals shy of the all-time England goalscoring record.

Finally, one of my tips came off last week, lay Sunderland at home to Arsenal. However, this game had its own measure of controversy, as with most games these days, with Arsene Wenger calling on TV replays to be used to assist referees. Watching JFK on his mobile phone in the Goodison stands was about the only bit of technology spotted during that game.

Having seen sports such as cricket and rugby embrace technology with third umpires and try judges respectively, I can see why the popular consensus is that football needs to follow in the same vein. However, implementing such radical measures is a topic open for debate, where do you draw the line? Is it only Premiership games, or all Football League games? Then, you have other side issues, such as costs. For me personally, I would like to see an initiative taken purely for a major tournament to start with, such as goal-line technology in a World Cup. If proved to be successful, then small samples should be introduced into top-flight games initially.

Ironically, it would probably serve better use in the lower divisions, judging by some of the bad decisions given in some of our games this season.

Away from football, I was fortunate enough the other week to have a ride in an Aston Martin Vantage, not that one of the lads had won Euro millions and treated himself - the owner, a self-made family friend, came up to stay.

That motor is my dream car. Whether I get the opportunity in this life to buy one is another matter! The technology in this car is frightening; gadgets for this and switches for that everywhere. Most of the lads have an average car, a Focus or an Astra, a far cry from the multi-million pound car parks of the Premiership...no baby Bentleys here I'm afraid (apart from the chairman!).

Nor will there be a Bentley at Wembley on Saturday after the Spurs winger failed to make the England squad but my bet for this week doesn't relate to the England match anyway. It's is in the World Cup qualifying campaign in South America, Argentina vs Uruguay: take the hosts to win at about [1.5]. The other added interest is one of my all-time favourite right-backs, Javier Zanetti. The Argentinian is a legend, amassing over 600 Serie 'A' games, a record for a non-Italian player. He certainly will go down as one of the best right-backs ever, in my opinion.

Editor's note: If you wish to ask Ben any questions about life as a footballer or his current football club Shrewsury please post a comment under this article with your name, city of residence and question and Ben will do his best to reply.