Tommy Mooney: Swapping shirts with Lampard and why I commend Capello

Tommy Mooney / Tommy Mooney / 09 October 2008 / Leave a Comment

An all-star cast graces Tommy Mooney's latest insight into his Spanish odyssey as the Marbella striker discusses his targets for the season and Fabio Capello's latest squad.

Playing-wise, it's not been the greatest of starts out here for me.

Right now, I'm tending to feature in the home games but not even travelling for away matches! As a striker, you need to be playing every match to build momentum. Every forward has a goals target for the season. When asked, I always said it was either 15 or 20 and the sooner I got to 10 the more likely I was to say 20.

Out here however, divisional top scorers get far less goals. Our top marksman at the moment is a centre-half with two goals to his name. There are far fewer chances created because of the style of play and the league season is 36 games long, 10 matches shorter than a year in the Football League.

My target was 12 goals for this season. I'm yet to register, though I can claim a few assists. However, the way things are going away from home, I've gradually revised my target. I don't know if they have an away Mooney shirt printed or not - it's never been out of the kit room if so!

Of course in England, especially in the Premier League, shirts aren't particularly cherished, with most players keen to swap at the end of a game. Obviously we're not playing the most glamorous of opposition out here, so it doesn't really go on, but I was never really a great swapper anyhow. Apart from special occasions, I think the only time I went out of my way to do it was with former team-mates; like when I was at Birmingham and Robert Page was at Sheffield United. We came up against each other having played for Watford for six years together - that sort of thing.

The first time I ever swapped a shirt was during my Southend United days, away to Fiorentina in the Anglo-Italian Cup, if you remember that competition back in the early-mid 90s. I distinctly remember Gabriel Batistuta playing that night and scoring a hat-trick, then for the last 15 minutes of the match hardly getting a touch as Chris Powell took it upon himself to man-mark him. Of course, he admitted after the game it was so he could get Batistuta's shirt.

I swapped shirts with Pasquale Bruno - a big centre-half who'd left a few stud marks down my chin when I went for a diving header and he didn't. He actually came up to me, so it was probably him feeling a bit guilty as I doubt he had the first clue who I was. It felt like the ground had been padlocked that night; a stadium which held about 80,000 with around 10,000 rattling around inside it.

Perhaps my most cherished opposition shirt is Frank Lampard's. I was the skipper for Wycombe at Stamford Bridge in the League Cup semi-final second leg a couple of years back. Having won the toss I said to Frank: "You can have kick-off if I can have your shirt for my son". He laughed about that but was good to his word having agreed.

That takes pride of place on Kelsey's bedroom wall. It's actually in a frame with my shirt from the game, so it looks really smart.

As for non-football clothing, there's plenty to choose from out here - and there's some real rascal gear as well. That gets what we know as the 'freezer' treatment. Dressing-rooms tend to feature freezers over here; the big chest ones with the lids that lift upwards. This lends itself to the odd prank or two which I don't need translation to join in with.

Any dodgy bit of gear gets put in the freezer just before we go out training or for a game. When we come back, sometimes two hours later, it is, of course, rock-solid.

The sight of one of the boys lobbing some distastefully-coloured Calvin Klein pants, for example, can be quite amusing. I've seen the tiles on the dressing-room floor nearly get split, some of the stuff's been that hard when it comes out of the old deep freeze.

As for the weekend, it's England time again and I see the debate's in full swing about Michael Owen's omission. I think a big part of that is the Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe partnership. They've been successful in the Premier League so far and it wouldn't surprise me if Capello started with both.

He's already shown he cares little for public opinion and, using Theo Walcott in Croatia for example, he's proved he'll pick the starting line-up based on what he reckons is best for that particular situation. Wayne Rooney isn't exactly on fire and Emile Heskey's never been a goalscorer so, as well as they did last time, I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to see Crouch and Defoe start up front.

While I think Owen's a fantastic player in his own right, Capello will say he's doing what's right for the team. He's very much his own man and I commend him for that.

Whoever does get the shirts, I fancy goals - and plenty of them - against Kazakhstan. It's very hard to nail down a particular score but I can see England getting at least four. So, to try and suggest something that'll at least make you a few quid, back the 'Any Unquoted' option for any scoreline involving four or above at about [1.95].

Editor's note: If you wish to ask Tommy any questions about life as a footballer or his current football club Marbella please post a comment under this article and Tommy will do his best to reply.