Check out this week‘s PWU Podcast for ruminations on the Stoke game, their tactics in general and the forthcoming international break. This edition is especially interesting because I’m a guest. I’m the one either chuckling away inanely in the background or forgetting the names of first team players.

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Latics' own Super Starjumpin' Stoj somehow managed to beat the Germans. How? I dunno.

This year’s so-called premier football competition (international-wise, anyway) has left a horrible taste in the mouth that, in my opinion, marks it as a low point in the history of world football.

Now, we’ve become used to widespread professionalism, which some people may term as ‘cheating’, in the domestic game. It’s something of a given, what with all the money and plastic fakery flying about, and the very nature of the FA Premier League in 2010.

But the World Cup, historically the gentleman’s competition, is meant to be a festival of fair play, an example of the spirit of the game we all know and (sometimes) love. Sadly there hasn’t been too much of that in South Africa.

And what are FIFA doing about it? Sweet Fanny Adams. Well, what else would you expect? Blatter and his cronies set a dangerous precedent when they decided not to penalise Thierry Henry or the French FA for the infamous ‘Hand of Frog’ in the slightest. In the process, they effectively condoned cheating, a benchmark for what would come in the 2010 World Cup: bad play acting and amateur dramatics aplenty coupled with officiating you’d usually see down at the Soccerdome on a Saturday afternoon.

You could point to the number of weak referees FIFA have appointed in the interests of ‘fairness’. I couldn’t see Howard Webb, for example, falling for the umpteenth dive or deliberate handball from a player clearly attempting to bend the rules in his favour in the same way a guy from, say, Mexico, who with the greatest respect would probably be relegated to his country’s third division having failed to award one of their ‘Big Four’ a 50:50 penalty decision.

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Jason Koumas has retired from international football

The past two weeks have been something of a pleasant break for Latics fans, not least because they give us the chance to catch our breath after the non-stop barrage of fixtures the beginning of the season normally brings. There’s been the usual ups and downs, talk of hirings, firings and rollockings as the Latics bumbled their way to three points from four games.

In that respect, it’s a much-needed break, as it also gives Roberto and his squad the opportunity to regroup for this weekend’s clash with West Ham. When I say ‘squad’, I mean a slightly depleted one, what with the international fixtures taking place this week.

One player who won’t be taking to the field for his country any more is Jason Koumas, who’s retired from international football with immediate effect. I suppose this could only be a good thing for Wigan, as he will presumably be concentrating all his efforts on performing on the Premier League stage and sticking in a few goals for us this forthcoming season.

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