The Damned Chelsea

A pampered dog

Hola. Hope you are well.

On Saturday evening I watched The Damned United. I’d put off watching or reading the novel because it’s based on a real person and a real event, (Brian Clough’s 44 days as Leeds manager) yet there is an element of fiction to it and stuff like that is too much for my brain. My fear of watching it was that from that day forward I would mix fact and fiction until it became fact. But then in the library whilst looking at the £1 films to hire my girlfriend and I narrowed our selection down to the aforementioned film and Get Him to the Greek. Anyway having watched the film, I’m now wondering if in 35 years there will be a film about Andre Villas Boas time at Chelsea.

Away from my domestic life, Carlos Tevez has made his long-awaited return back to Manchester City. You’d think under the circumstances he’d keep his head down and get on with being a footballer. But being Carlos Tevez he had different ideas, and came out and said, Mancini had treated him like a dog on ‘that’ night in Munich. I doubt Mancini did treat him like a dog, and secondly I think it’s unfair on dogs as they are generally loyal creatures. This did however make me think what kind of dog would Tevez be and I came up with an over indulged one. One that eats the same food as the humans in the house, one that is allowed to sleep in the owners bed, one that had his teeth brushed. Ironically, if Tevez was an actual dog, it would have been easier to have got him on the pitch that night, Mancini could have simply thrown a stick on the pitch.

Since my last blog post, Rangers have gone into administration and subsequently deducted 10 points (yet are still 2nd in the table). What did surprise is that a club like Rangers are running at £10m a year loss. I don’t understand how clubs are allowed and/or get themselves in such a position, especially a club the size of Rangers. They apparently owe the HMRC £9m in unpaid taxes, which just equates to the last tax year. Over the last few years we’ve seen on a number of occasions the HMRC chasing clubs for unpaid taxes, allied to high-profile cases where big businesses have found loopholes in order to pay less tax, it has left me a little concerned as to how the HMRC remains open. Is anyone paying tax, apart from the average man in the street?

And Finally… because I have my finger on the pulse, I’d like to talk about Fabio Capello resigning 12 days after it happened. There’s plenty of things I could say about this but the thing I’d like to focus on, is the fact that Fabio came out and said he resigned over a ‘misunderstanding’. I wonder what this misunderstanding was? Maybe the FA told Fabio they were going to strip John Terry of the England captaincy told him that no matter what he thought of the decision, he mustn’t criticise the decision to the Italian media. Due to the language barrier maybe Fabio mistook this to mean, do criticise this decision on Italian TV. It’s a long shot but who knows.

Til next time, stay safe!

That handshake (or not)

Martin Luther King jnr

Hola. Hope you are well.

When I started writing this football blog, one of my concerns was that I wouldn’t have enough stuff to write about. Not for the first time I was wrong, the main problem I have is that I can’t keep up with all the goings on in football. For example, this blog post was going to be about Fabio Capello leaving the England manager’s post and Harry Redknapp taking over, that was until Saturday lunchtime, when the world went crazy because a man in Manchester failed to shake the hand of another man. Of course I’m referring to Luis Suarez and that non-handshake.

I assumed like most people, that the handshake would take place and that it would bring some kind of closure to this whole story. Not for the first time, I was wrong. When I first saw the non-handshake I did think, “Wow, Suarez is a proper mentalist”. Then as the game went on, I started to think, that whether you think he is right or wrong, he should have the right not to shake someones hand. And as my writer friend HP Tinker, pointed out, people condemned Sepp Blatter for saying racism on the pitch could be sorted with a handshake, yet these same people were now condemning Suarez for not shaking Evra’s hand.

One of the problems I have with this whole saga is, that if you were to believe Twitter (and other social media) all Man Utd fans are descendants of Martin Luther King Jr, all thinking about how to solve the issue of racism from the moment they wake til the moment they fall asleep whilst everyone associated with Liverpool FC are at home ironing their Ku Klux Klan outfits. I’m not saying Man Utd fans aren’t bothered about racism but I do wonder how vociferous they would have been if the player involved hadn’t been a Liverpool player. I say this not to be provocative, as some of my best friends are Man Utd fans. (red scum)

I don’t think it helped after the game when Mr Ferguson, said that the non-handshake could have caused a riot. For one it didn’t, secondly, I think he’s done Man Utd fans a disservice if he thinks, they would riot over a handshake, thirdly, if you are someone who would riot over a non-handshake, you need to re-assess your life. and fourthly, there have been plenty of riots across the globe in the last year, including in England and none of them have involved one man refusing to shake another’s hand.

By the next day Suarez had suddenly realised the error of his ways, and apologised, Kenny Dalglish had seen the error of his ways and apologised and Liverpool FC had seen the error of their ways and apologised. All this re-evaluation on the situation happened organically and had nothing to do with the owners putting their foot down and saying this doesn’t look good for ‘brand Liverpool’.I did think it was kind of amusing that having supported Suarez all through the racial abuse charge, the straw that broke this particular scouse camel, was that he had misled the club about the handshake.

What probably made Liverpool think they needed to address this issue was when their shirt sponsor Standard Chartered got involved, to say this didn’t look good. Let’s face it, in this day and age, if a bank is telling you that you’ve f*cked up, you’ve probably f*cked up.

Til next time, stay safe!

Credit where credit’s due

Susan and Karl

Hola. Hope you are well.

Let’s start with the England captaincy which was taken off John Terry yesterday (3/2/12), which means he’s been the England captain, then he got it taken from him, then he got it back and then he got it taken off him again. It’s a long shot (no pun intended) but has anything like this happened to you, it doesn’t have to involve the England captaincy. The only thing I can think which is similar is Karl and Susan‘s on-off relationship in Neighbours. They are currently going through another separation, should anyone be interested.

The January transfer window passed with little fuss, there were a few surprising moves, for example Louis Saha and Ryan Nelson moved to Tottenham, I doubt they are the signings that are going to see Spurs win the league, and the much sought after Ravel Morrison who had been linked with moves to Barcelona, Arsenal and Newcastle eventually left Man Utd for … West Ham.

One person who didn’t move in the window was Chris Samba, but he has gone on to say he can no longer give 100% to Blackburn‘s cause. What I would like to ask Chris is, what percentage is he able to give and for him to show his workings. It’s also made me wonder what will happen if he now goes in for a 50/50 tackle, will that now become 70/30 in the opposition player’s favour. I don’t feel I’m skilled enough in maths to sort out problems like this, does anyone have Carol Vorderman’s number?

Mario Balotelli’s agent has gone one step further by saying his client will leave the country if he continues to get picked on by the officials. This comes after Balotelli got a four match ban for a stamp on Scott Parker’s head. Normally when people threaten to leave the country, especially bankers, I’m like ‘leave then’ but in Mario’s case I’m saying stay, for two reasons. Firstly, I’m a fan of the man, the player and his antics and secondly, it would appear that he is single-handedly propping up this country’s welfare state, with his cash donations.

Mario’s 4 match ban does beg the question, what would Alan Shearer get if he did this today?
And whilst we are on this theme if Vincent Kompany got 4 matches for his tackle on Nani, how long would Greame Souness be banned for this tackle, in today’s climate?

On to other matter, and it was nice to see that now football has eradicated racism, they are now tackling homophobia, with the 20 Premier league clubs agreeing this week to get behind a poster campaign. That will definitely sort the issue. Ok, I admit I am being flippant and any step in this direction has to be viewed in a positive manner.

Talking of which, I watched the documentary, Britain’s Gay footballer, this week and one of the stand out moments for me was the fact Joey Barton was the only player from the Premier League to contribute to the programme. Which, I think shows him in a good light, don’t get me wrong I still think he’s a pr*ck but credit where credit’s due.

Another player who divides opinion is Craig Bellamy and he was also the subject of a documentary this week, looking at the work his foundation does in Sierra Leone. Which again shows Craig in a good light. I’m now waiting to see what Gary Neville is going to do, to show he’s not such a kn*b.

Til next time, stay safe!

You can stick Gareth Barry up your arse

Those cream suits

Hola. Hope you are well.

As the girlfriend is away, I thought I would do what any guy in my situation would do and get the laptop out and do my football blog.

I also thought I would get my blog in before the Liverpool vs Man Utd game (tomorrow), although I doubt there’ll be many talking points in this game. In all seriousness I do hope the Liverpool fans don’t let themselves down by targeting Patrice Evra. Ever since this draw took place,  people have speculated as to whether anything could be done to diffuse any potential aggro between both sets of fans. Maybe the Liverpool players can wear T-shirts with Evra’s picture on them, to counteract the ones they wore with Suarez face. It does seem, those T-shirts have been the most talked about item of clothing in football, since the Liverpool players wore ‘those’ cream suits.

Talking of which, since Liverpool went through to the Carling Cup Final on Wednesday night, media outlets keep mentioning how Liverpool have not been to Wembley since 1996. I’m not sure why they keep mentioning this as it is a little bit of a skewed fact, as they have been to domestic cup finals since then but played them at Cardiff’s Millennium stadium because WEMBLEY WAS SHUT! It was nice however to see the Liverpool fans a lot more happy at this home draw, than the ones against Norwich, Swansea, Stoke et al…

I watched the semi-final in my local pub and during the game, probably prompted by one of his many saves, a (cockney) Man Utd fan asked me if, “Hart was the England keeper”. They’re so knowledgeable those Man Utd fans.

Prior to the game, I read an article in which Gareth Barry said he was put off a move to Liverpool, because during a pre-season game he heard the Liverpool fans singing “You can stick Gareth Barry up your arse”. That’s good to know, because some cynics (not me of course) thought he moved to Man City, rather than Liverpool because they offered him a shed load more money.

That’s me done for this blog post, I can only take so much fun on a Friday night, plus I’ve got to go and see if I can open a trust fund for my dog.

Til next time. stay safe!

There are other insurance comparison websites

Hola. Hope you are well.

After all the talk of racism and racist abuse surrounding Liverpool FC, you’d think everyone connected to the club wouldn’t do anything that could be construed as racist behaviour. Cue the FA Cup game against Oldham, where someone in the Kop, allegedly shouted a racist slur against Tom Adeyemi, Oldham’s black right back. Under normal circumstances you’d be considered an idiot to do that, but after what has recently happened you’d have to be a proper idiot or a proper racist. Some would say the two are not mutually exclusive.

Away from racist abuse, and on to Spurs after Tottenham beat Everton, I kept hearing pundits asking, ‘Are Spurs now genuine title contenders’. There was also talk of how Spurs have got to the top the right way, i.e. without spending huge sums of money, unlike Man City, to be fair that was just from Harry Redknapp. So after almost a week of the media bigging up Spurs, I found it funny that their next game, at home to Wolves, ended in a …. draw.

I very rarely talk about Scotish football, mainly because I don’t know much about the minor leagues of Europe but I was watching BBC Breakfast Sports news and they mentioned how Hearts face being fined by the SPL for not paying their players on time for the last 4 months. I don’t know the ins and outs, and I do think you should pay people on time but I do think it a little odd, to fine an organisation if they are quite clearly struggling financially. That concept seems so wrong, it could almost be a Coalition policy. (a little bit of politics)

On to a good news story, well I think it is, the return to Arsenal of Thierry Henry, who made a scoring debut against Leeds. His deal came about after he was training at Arsenal during the MLS close season. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened in recent times at Arsenal. Jens Lehmann re-signed for the club after he was doing some work towards his coaching badges at Arsenal and Sol Campbell re-signed after he was training with Arsenal after he left Notts County after his one game there. So expect to see Perry Groves at the Arsenal training ground, anytime soon.

There can’t be many players, if any, who are playing at a club where there is a statue of them outside the ground. I don’t think Michael Jackson was still playing at Fulham, when they erected the statue of him. Apparently Thierry’s move to Arsenal, took longer than expected due to a problem with insuring him. It made me imagine Arsene Wenger on Confused.com, looking for the best deal available. (There are other insurance comparison websites)

With the whole Suarez saga, I didn’t get the chance to mention Joey Barton threatening to sue refs or players who play act to get an opposition player sent off, after his sending off against Norwich. My first thought on this, is that Joey more than most footballers must realise that the courts are for serious incidents not because one idiot footballer decides to put his head into another footballers head. And secondly, has too much Twitter use affected Joey’s memory, as he seems to have forgotten how he got Gervinho sent off in the opening game of the season, erm … play acting.

And Finally… Like Mr Barton, I’ve joined the Twitter revolution, you can follow me @anunknowncomic.

Til next time, stay safe!

 

Things are never black and white

Hola. Hope you are well.

So the whole Suarez case has moved on since my last blog post. Aided by the disclosure of the 115 page report. I have to admit I’ve not read it. I could say it’s because I haven’t the time as I lead such a Rock and Roll lifestyle but I’d be lying, it’s just that I reckon it might be a slow read. Plus, like most people I like to draw my opinions from the snippets of info I read in the papers and on phone-in shows.

For what it’s worth (probably not much) I kind of feel a line probably needs to be drawn on this issue. Suarez is going to serve his 8 match ban. He has said he’s not going to use the term ‘negro’ again on a football pitch in England (I’m not sure about in other countries) and he’s released an apology of sorts. If I were advising him (and I’m not) I would strongly suggest that he makes a personal apology to Evra, expressing the fact that he hadn’t wished to cause Evra such offence. After all Evra expressed to the commission that he didn’t believe Suarez was racist.

I’m not naive enough to believe that in the heat of a verbal exchange Suarez used negro in the colloquial/matey way he suggested. He apparently backed this up by telling the commission that his wife uses that term as a pet name for him at home. This might be true but I would suggest that his relationship with his wife is different to the one he has with Evra.

Nor however do I believe that he realised how using that word in this country would be so negatively perceived. Having read Evra’s account of the verbal exchange, it appears to me that Suarez was trying to wind up Evra, of which it would appear he was successful in doing, as at one point Evra, threatens to punch Suarez if he uses the word again.

I also feel that those people who are trying to link this incident with what happened with Stephen Lawrence are making too many leaps. I can see why people have done this, and that’s to do with timing, as it coincided with the sentencing of  Gary Dobson and David Norris for the murder of Stephen Lawrence. If this had happened six months ago, I doubt people would have linked the two incidents.

The problem I have with linking the two cases is that Stephen Lawrence was hunted down by a gang of 5 white youths, cornered, before being stabbed to death, for no other reason than the colour of his skin. And if this wasn’t bad enough the family had to suffer again at the hands of the police and then had to wait over 18 years to get some semblance of justice.

I’m hoping after this blog post, I can go back to poking fun at football and footballers, after all I’m a comedian (of sorts).

Til next time, stay safe!

I don’t know Alan Hansen

Suarez and Evra

 Hola. Hope you are well and enjoying the festive period.

There’s a common philosophical question which asks, ‘if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to see it, does it make a noise’?, well I feel there is a new question that can now be thrown into the mix. ‘If a man uses a term that in his country/culture is not deemed racist but uses that phrase in a country where it could be construed as being racist, is it racist’? Well, if you are part of the 3 man FA panel apparently it is.

Of course I am talking about the Luis Suarez case. I wasn’t present on the pitch when it happened and I wasn’t present at the hearing, nor do I know the intentions of Suarez so all I can go on is the things that I have read and heard about the case.

Neither am I sure what the public perception of Suarez is? I know some people think he goes down too easily, or remember the save on the line against Ghana in the World Cup, or heard about him biting another player’s leg and have drawn their own opinion about him from these incidents. But in this case, I think if anything he may have been too honest. If he wanted to, he could have denied saying this term, after all there was no video evidence to dispute this, despite Evra saying Suarez used this term 10 times, and none of the other players came forward to say they heard Suarez use the term. So essentially it was his word against Evra’s so if he had denied it, he probably could have got off without punishment. In light off this, the fact he was open and honest to the panel makes me think that he genuinely didn’t feel that what he said was a racial slur. That’s not to say just because you don’t think something is offensive then it’s not.

Nor am I saying that if someone uses racist language towards another player they should go without punishment, but if this scenario had happened in a school (I work in schools) I believe Suarez would have been sat down and told that in this country that the term he used is not considered acceptable and he should not use it in the future. Of course if he used it again, he would have to be suitably punished as he wouldn’t be able to plead ignorance as a defence.

I also feel Alex Ferguson hasn’t helped things by saying Liverpool should accept the 8 match ban, this is from a man who has never accepted any decision that has ever gone against him. We shall see how accepting he is when an official makes a mistake at Old Trafford to cost his side 3 points. Nor do I understand how Evra is not facing disciplinary action, as he freely admitted to the panel that he verbally abused Suarez, although Suarez said he never heard him. So maybe you are allowed to verbally abuse people as long as they don’t hear you.

The talk of racism then went from the pitch and to the Match of the Day studios, where Alan Hansen twice used the word ‘coloured’ when referring to black/foreign players in the game. Again, I don’t know Alan Hansen but I don’t think he was being malicious, I think he used a term that is outdated, but am I offended by the word? No. I doubt it very much that he will be using it again any time soon. I do however feel that if MOTD did want to talk seriously about racism in football, instead of Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen and Lee Dixon talking about it, it might have been nice to see someone like Sol Campbell on the programme, not only is he a black guy but he is also just out of the game.

As for John Terry, whether he is found guilty of making racist remarks towards Anton Ferdinand or not, it won’t make any difference to how I view him, as I doubt he can go any lower in my estimation.

Anyway after all this talk of racism, all that is left to do is wish you all a good and prosperous 2012!

Til next time, stay safe!

Well done John O’Shea

Craig Bellamy and Joey Barton

Hola. Hope you are well.

Tis 4 O’Clock in the morning and I can’t sleep, so like most men I got up, put the laptop on and sat down to do my football blog.

It would appear that since my last blog post, that thanks to victories against, Newcastle, Valencia and Man City, Andre Villas Boas has gone from getting sacked to being measured up for a statue outside Stamford Bridge. On my last blog, I said that I liked AVB and the fact that since then he has had a go at Gary Neville makes me like him even better. I think I’ve asked this question before, but outside of Man Utd fans and maybe his immediate family does anyone else like Gary Neville?

I also said on my last blog post, that liking AVB had put me in a unacustomed position of wanting Chelsea to get results, so the  pressure would ease on him. Well my default setting is back to normal when it comes to Chelsea, mainly because I watched the Chelsea v Man City game in a pub where some Chelsea fans were and it reminded me how annoying they are.

Talking of Chelsea, does anyone else think that Nicolas Anelka’s move to Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua is a little odd. I know that if you look at his CV it is a little varied, for example he was a Bolton player as recently as 2008. I also realise that he will be paid handsomely for moving to China (reportedly earning in the region of £175 000-200 000 a week) but he still has to play in the Chinese league. He’s still only 32, you’d think, there’d be Premier League clubs that would have  happily signed him, or a top to mid ranking European club but perhaps I am over looking one thing. Perhaps he has always been a fan of Shanghai Shenhua, from when he was a young boy growing up in France. You never know.

Away from Chelsea and since my last blog post Martin O’Neill has been named the new manager of Sunderland. I’m sure he will do well there. His appointment however, has made me think, for starters Martin O’Neill, took over Aston Villa when they were in a similar position as Sunderland are now. He then guided them to three 6th place finishes, which were arguably the best Villa could have asked for at the time. He then left Villa, and they appointed Gerard Houllier, who’d been out of club football for 3 years and away from English football for 6 and who had a history of heart trouble.  Unsurprisingly to some it didn’t work out for Houllier, on the pitch as Villa went backwards and Houllier ended up in hospital with heart trouble, with Villa ended the season in 9th place. They went onto sack Houllier and replaced him with the manager of their city rivals and the man who oversaw Birmingham’s relegation. As for Martin O’Neill, it took him 15 months to secure a job and takes over at a club where his initial task is to steer them away from the bottom three. Finishing 6th must seem a long, long away for him. It all leaves me thinking no one won in this scenario, not Villa, not Martin O’Neill and not Gerard Houllier. Maybe Martin should have stayed at Villa.

As people may know I’m loathe to give Man Utd any praise and that extends to their current players and their ex players, but I was reading this article, about how Bojan Djordic was earning £90 a week as a player at Blackpool. And despite living in Blackpool this still doesn’t stretch very far. In the article it mentions how former Man Utd player, John O’Shea had taken it upon himself to help pay for Bojan’s accommodation as they had been friends when Bojan was at Man Utd. If only part of this is true, then you have to say well done John O’Shea, something I’ve never said before and something I’m pretty sure I won’t be saying again.

Just to prove I’m not going soft, wasn’t it funny when Man Utd got knocked out of the Champions League. It does mean that Channel 5, have some tough decisions as to which games to show when they resume their Europa League coverage. Will they choose Man City, Man Utd or Stoke?

Moving onto Joey Barton and Craig Bellamy, apparently during last Saturdays Liverpool v QPR game they got involved in a heated discussion which continued during the game and then carried on in the tunnel. I find it hard to believe Craig Bellamy and Joey Barton were arguing and neither could bring themselves to back down, this doesn’t seem like the Craig Bellamy and Joey Barton we’ve come to know.

And Finally… I am off to see Charlton vs Oldham later today, mainly because it’s a tenner in, but as I am going, it’s probably going to be a drab 0-0 draw. With this in mind I apologise in advance to all the other fans going to this game.

Til next time, stay safe!

Managing

craig bellamy

Hola. Hope you are well.

I was just checking some of the stats and it would appear this is the 50th post for this blog. Make of this what you want.

I think I should start by talking about the Euro 2012 draw, that took place yday (2/12/11). I think the consensus is that it’s not a bad draw  for England (Ukraine, Sweden and France), I can’t help thinking that once the games start, England’s performances will make it into a tougher group than people first  anticipated.

Another concern is that England are now based in the wrong country, as their training camp is in Poland but their games are in Ukraine. I suppose that’s one of the problems with having co-hosts, it’s also the problem of having to decide where you are going to be based before you know the draw. In that sense, it’s a little like the process A Level students have to go through when applying for university places. In that they have to choose potential universities prior to knowing their results. I think I may have been working in education too long!

On to the first sacking of a Premiership manager, and that honour goes to Steve Bruce. A lot of people have pinpointed reasons why he had to go. For example, not replacing Darren Bent, bringing in so many players over the summer and not playing most of them, or the fact they’ve only won twice at home in this calendar year.  I think it just came down to the fact they lost to Wigan at HOME. I think the board took this alone as a sackable offence on its own.

Another manager apparently under pressure is Andre Villas Boas. To be honest I quite like him and I think his story is an uplifting one, from a chance meeting with Bobby Robson as a 16-year-old to becoming the Chelsea manager at 33. I also dislike Chelsea, which puts me in an uncompfortable and unaccustomed position of wanting Chelsea to win games in order to preserve his position. You may have thought that if you employ a 33-year-old manager with limited managerial experience, you are planning for the future and not looking for a quick fix, but then again this is football and it is Chelsea and Abramovich.

I don’t think it helps AVB, that everyone seems to be quoting his unfavourable win ratio against other Chelsea managers that Abramovich has got rid off. I also don’t think it helps that everyone seems to know what is wrong with Chelsea. Apparently it all comes down to them playing a ‘high (defensive) line’. This is classic football chat, some expert, probably Alan Hansen, has mentioned this in their capacity as a pundit and now this is fact, despite the fact he employed the same methods when gaining trophies and plaudits at Porto.

In AVB’s defence he has hit back by saying his job is safe, and one of the reasons he’s given is that he’s too expensive to sack. Which as reasons go, isn’t  the strongest. It’s a little bit like a husband saying, my wife won’t leave me as she can’t be bothered with the hassle of getting a lawyer or moving out.

One manager who has just got a new 3 year contract is Steve Kean at Blackburn, which does seem remarkable as they are bottom of the table, the fans want him out, to the point they’ve hired planes with banners of ‘Steve Kean Out‘ on them. When I first heard he’d got a new contract I thought he must have a genius for an agent but then my mate told me that in Steve Kean’s newly signed contract he’s on more money but if he gets sacked he would get less of a pay out than he would have previously received. If I were Steve Kean (and I’m not) this part of the contract would worry me a little. I wonder how this will play out??

And Finally… I feel I should mention the passing of Gary Speed. Like most people who I’ve heard talking about his death, I was shocked when I heard the news. I’m not sure why I was so shocked, he’s never played for the team I support, I’ve never met him, yet I was still shocked. I think part of the reason was because I saw him the day before on Football Focus and on it he looked fit and healthy and seemed in good spirits and was looking to the future with Wales. This didn’t fit with the demeanor of a man who would take his life, less than a day later. One thing that I have noticed is that football fans across the board have been respectful of Gary Speed, which isn’t always the case, what with the tribal nature of football fans. For example, Despite being an ex Everton player and Everton fan, Liverpool fans sung his name, during the league cup game against Chelsea. What’s more remarkable is that his passing has elicited something generally unheard of, sympathy for Craig Bellamy, if nothing else this shows the esteem Gary Speed was held in.

Til next time, stay safe!

The Golden Generation

A Llama

Hola. Hope you are well.

So much seems to have happened since my last post. So where to start??? Sepp Blatter me thinks. There’s not loads I can add to what has been said about his comments about racist remarks on the football pitch. He’s obviously got it wrong, to suggest that players should settle issues of racist abuse with a handshake is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous when you consider players get a yellow card for removing their shirts after scoring a goal. So in Blatter’s world you are better off racially abusing someone than removing your top. It’s even more ridiculous when you consider that these words should leave the lips of arguably the most powerful man in world football. The poppy row now seems to be a distant memory, if that was his intention then he’s some kind of genius, if not he’s just a buffoon.

Now on to England’s victory against Spain, surely making them the best team in the world and the unofficial World Champions. May I be the first person to suggest this crop of new players, including Phil Jones, Kyle Walker and Bobby Zamora are ‘The Golden Generation’. May I also suggest, should Fabio be reading this, that having beaten the reigning World and European champions this might be a good time to ask the FA for a pay rise.

It’s not been such a good time for the Harry Redknapp for England manager campaign. Not only has Fabio’s England had two victories, but Harry has been hospitalised and now has a date for his court case for financial wrong doings.

In addition to the Blatter furore, one of the other talking points was the Wigan player Alcaraz spitting at a Wolves player. Despite admitting it was wrong, Wigan manager Roberto Martinez did offer as a defence for his player, that spitting it is a cultural thing and though in this country we find it disgusting to spit at someone, in some cultures it’s more acceptable. Which cultures are these, the Llama culture?

And Finally… on my last blog, I mentioned how things were going well with Newcastle but being Newcastle there was a good chance things would implode and quickly. Mike Ashley must have been reading this because not long afterwards it was announced that Newcastle’s ground would be now known as the Sports Direct Arena. Named after the budget sports company owned by … Mike Ashley. To be fair if I were Mike Ashley, I would have gone the whole hog and called it the Mike Ashley Stadium. Live the dream Mike!

Til next time, stay safe!