Deal or no deal

Hands up who's ever been transferred, because it's one of the great laments of my career that I never have. Not once, not under any interpretation of the word whatsover, not once have I been transferred.

Tapped-up yes, interfered with certainly and slung out, indeed, but never, ever transferred. The closest I ever got was back in 1979 when playing centre forward for St Wilfrids Under 14s in the Mid-Sussex Sunday league. After an uncharacteristically good first half performance during which I scored two goals, hit the post and generally couldn't do a thing wrong, I became the subject of the attentions of the opposing manager - a burly Scotsman with a complexion like the inside of an antique teapot. As half-time approached I retrieved the ball from said Scotsman for a throw-in. As he handed the ball over I was convinced he gave me a slight wink. Ignoring this blatant attempt at psychological warfare, I carried on. In the half-time interval I nipped to the loo feeling generally good about the world. As I sidled up to the urinal and went about my business, I was joined on my right by the Scottish coach.

"You know," he said in a mean Glaswegian drawl, looking down in my general area. "I think you've got something there." Now, urinating in front of other men has never been my speciality, but so long as no words are exchanged and we all do the polite thing and stare straight ahead and try not to be interesting, I'm normally OK. On this occasion I was immediately gripped with uncertainty. "Eh?" was all I could muster. "You could be going places," he informed me before adding. "You just need steering." As far as I could ascertain my performance in the urinal steerage department up to this point had been flawless but who was I to argue with a burly Scotsman. "Hhhnnffnnrrrr.." was all I could muster as I braced myself for his next lewd comment. "How about we meet for a drrrrinnkk? Just you and me, no one needs to know, ..... strictly on the QT." The words Q & T spun off his Celtic tongue with gleeful conspiracy.

Just my luck I thought, just as I'm having the game of my life I get interfered with by a homicidal gay Scotsman. I legged it out for the second half, and spent the entire 45 minutes avoiding the entire left hand side of the pitch where he was prowling.

Anyway, the game ended and I was off faster than you could say 'urinal impotence'. Never spoke to the fella again and it was days later that I discovered through a mutual friend that the Scotsman wasn't cruising for gay football sex, he was actually trying to sign me for his club. I wonder if that's how Rafa Benitez goes about his business? It's hard to imagine Jose Mourinho leering over the urinal wall in order to persuade Michael Essien as to the honourable nature of his intentions: "Hey, Michael, you are good, you are very good. How about I get you into the club no? It’s verrry good forrr yooou, his verrry good forrrr me." There is, after all, a time and a place.

Transfer deadline excitement is reaching fever pitch. The big news so far…. Javier Mascerano takes his one man show of contempt to Liverpool, Gareth Bale decides he’s better off in the Championship at Southampton than, Shaun Maloney joins Villa from Celtic, and news reaches us that Michael Duberry has finished his cup of tea and is seriously considering Steve Coppell’s offer of a suggestive digestive….. now calm down everyone….

ANYWAY, as the transfer deadline curtain begins to fall we would like to hear your own stories about transfers, whether they concern the club you play for or the club you support, it's all good as far as we're concerned. Have you ever been transferred? Have you ever had to let anyone go? What's the best and worst transfer you've ever seen or heard about, whether it's your local five a side team or ManbloodyUnited. Brng it on and send ‘em in. Otherwise I'll have nothing to read tonight and will end up watching Dispatches or something…

Wagging for it

(well, according to Nuts magazine anyway...)

Hang on to your tousers and watch out for flying gozongas - the new Nuts magazine is out today and features its annual Top 100 Footballers Wives special. ie The actual wives and girlfriends of the world's greatest footballers. IQ and a firm grasp of foreign policy do not seem to have been a factor in determining this list but if ever there was an incentive to delay hanging your boots up this is it. You have to feel for the poor young lad who had to research this. Probably sat in a corner reduced to a gibbering wreck mumbling "No more, can't take any more, please Mrs Crouch, leave me be!" Anyway, we here @ iSporty have done our own forensics on the magazine's contents and come up with a shortlist of 10. They are...

1. Helen Svedin (Inter Milan's Luis Figo)
2. Magdalene Hedman (Chelsea's Magnus Hedman)
3. Gemma Atkinson (Man U's Cristiano Ronaldo)
4. Ilary Blasi AS Roma's Franceso Totti - insert your own gag here)
5. Francesco Lodo (Livorno's Francesco Coco)
6. Jadene (QPR's Mark Bircham)
7. Elena Santarelli (Man City's Bernardo Corradi)
8. Cassie Summer (Chelsea's Michael Essien)
9. Adriane Karembu (Christian Karembu - retired and who can blame the fella?)
10. Abigail Clancy (Liverpool's Peter Crouch)

Check it out yourself at www.nuts.co.uk

Wanted - real life grass roots WAGs Please feel free to enter our very own WAG of the day for grass roots sports individuals like us. I suggested this to my wife and now we're sleeping on seperate continents so mind how you go...

Tiger: Becks can make it in LA

Dubai - David Beckham's quest for super-stardom in the United States has drawn support from current top draw card, Tiger Woods.

The wealthiest and most recognised sportsman in the world said that the former England skipper knows what he is doing in moving from Spanish powerhouses Real Madrid to the footballing backwaters of the LA Galaxy.

"I think in Los Angeles, we've lost basically two football teams, the Rams and the Raiders moved out," he said.

"Now we're looking for something else and I think with David's star power there, I think it will bring another notch and another thing for all of us in southern California to come out and watch and observe."

Woods though made it known that star-quality or not, he would not be changing his schedule to follow Beckham's progress.

Asked if he was a Galaxy fan or if he followed any team's results, he made it clear that when it came to sport he was traditional American through and through.

"Yeah, I like to watch, but as far as me following soccer religiously like people over here do, no," he said. "I'm more of a basketball/baseball/football kind of guy."

24.com

Extreme Snowmobile

Not so long ago the first backflip on a motorbike was successfully landed. Now, the backflip is being landed by 200 kg Snowmobiles! Check it out!

Want a Wii?

Of course you do, everyone wants one! We have found a brilliant website that will help you to get your hands on one. This website searches all the major retailers and tells you extactly where the Nintendo Wii stock is! Check it out!

Top Gear beats BB with Hammond Crash

Over 8 million viewers tuned in to watch Richard Hammond's 300mph crash last night on BBC2, beating Channel 4's Big Brother with 7 million viewers. Watch the big crash here

Pay v play

Who’s up for the cup…. Anyone? Anyone at all… hello?

Stop noncing and get boncing.

It’s 2.50pm on 4th round Saturday. Dreams of Wembley fill the air and Barnet fans dare to imagine the furore they’ll cause if they can overcome the mighty Plymouth Argyle and progress to the 5th round. It could be Man U next, or Chelsea.

Over at SKY studios, Paul Merson is putting the finishing touches to his hilarious ‘They’ve been mugged good and proper not never they have, guvnor, strike a light if the ball ain’t gone and hit the beans on toast’ routine. Elsewhere in the studio McLintock, Thompson et all are busily dreaming up fascinating new ways of insinuating that the other panellists are quite old, and Jeff Whatsisface is gargling with marbles in preparation of an afternoon barking his way through some good old fashioned FA Cup shockery. Everything is going right to plan. The world’s greatest cup competition is centre stage once more and we’re all very excited about it.

Except that someone’s forgotten to tell the fans. As kick off approached and the SKYTV cameras scanned round the grounds, you could have been forgiven for assuming that most of the matches had been called off at the last minute. There were more empty seats than a controversial Big Brother eviction night.

Take a bow Crystal Palace who drew a shameful 8,422 for their game at home to Preston. This works out to a woeful 32% of Selhurst Park’s capacity. Ipswich v Swansea drew a poxy 16,635, just half of Portman Road’s capacity. Apologies to the poxy 16,635 who did turn up, you’re not poxy, in fact you reduce Ipswich’s overall pox-factor by your attendance. It’s the stay-aways I should be calling poxy but you know what I mean and I haven’t got all day. Moving swiftly along, say hello to those die-hard, football-crazy kids at Fulham v Stoke. The Premiership club pulled in just 11,059 for a game they were likely to win, in the only competition they still can.

If it hadn’t been for Prawn Sandwich FC’s whopping 71,000, FA Cup 4th round gates on Saturday would have averaged just 16,850. Hang on a minute, did I forget to mention Luton… 5,887 for the visit of Premiership Blackburn! No wonder the team folded faster than Superman on laundry day, they probably thought they were playing for the stiffs. This was Luton’s lowest gate of the season so far in their biggest game. The FA are manfully arguing that the average gates for this round were the highest for 29 years. This is true but all the big teams, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man U played at home and guaranteed sell out crowds no matter what the competition or opposition. Take those three out of the equation, or have them playing away and it’s clear to see there are problems. Almost everywhere else, there were vast swaths of empty seats all over the shop. Have we finally succumbed to conspiracy theory that the FA Cup doesn’t matter anymore? Are we a bit skint this month? Have we been feeling slightly under the weather and all that? Are we too busy contemplating suicide? Well, it is January. Whatever the reason, to most football supporters, The FA Cup is now about as appealing as a slap in the face with an ill-tempered tench.

So where the bloody-blimey has everyone gone? Shopping with the wife? Playing golf? Wine tasting in Chablis? Naaah, take a look in your local park. You’ll see them there, alright. They’ll be the ones wearing the green & white hooped, home-washed kits held together by that tell-tale grass roots badge of honour — the stubborn under stain.

The reason football hasn’t come home is because it’d rather be down the local rec’ having fun than forking out a small fortune to watch a bunch of over-paid nancy-boys poncing around the place in expensive haircuts looking for cheap penalties.

Tim Southwell

Editor isporty.com interactive

29th January 2007

Keep your shirt on Simon

Is all publicity good publicity? Simon Cowell may not think so when he opens today's papers and sees his topless torso shining out. The reason? His is the most popular picture used for a story about the increase in men have ops for man-boobs. Best keep your top on in future, Si. Daily Mirror P28

Best Ties Ever

The top ten ties as voted in the Observer poll

1. Hereford 2-1 Newcastle 1972

2. Man United 2-1 Arsenal 1999

3. Wrexham 2-1 Arsenal 1992

4. C Palace 4-3 Liverpool 1990

5. Everton 4-4 Liverpool 1991

6. Liverpool 3-3 West Ham 2006

7. Tottenham 3-4 Man City 2004

8. Tranmere 4-3 Southampton 2001

9. Stoke 2-3 Blyth Spartans 1978

10. Chelsea 4-2 Liverpool 1997

Can you think of any others?

Fighting Fat

The Guardian(Mon 29 Jan) explains how to keep your kids healthy and happy.

Our children have never been fatter. Nor have they ever been so prone to eating disorders like anorexia. What can parents do? How do you steer your kids away from one danger without pushing them towards the other? Lucy Atkins has some practical advice.

Some parents are very good at kidding themselves that their overweight child is fine. "It's just puppy fat," is perhaps the most common excuse. Some panic and impose crash diets. Others simply call the child "fatso" and laugh it off. None of this is helpful. Indeed, our collective ineptitude on the subject of our children's expanding girth is such that a parliamentary watchdog has called for the appointment of an "obesity tsar", in part to give parents clearer guidelines about what to do if their children are fat. A few pointers would certainly come in handy.

To Read more click here

Coming Sunday -

This Sunday The Observer Sport Monthly Magazine will be featuring The Appliance of Science - How Football went back to the Classroom by David Runciman. Should be interesting...

Zidane DVD - Out Today!

Zidane - A 21st Century Portrait

Turner Prize-winning artist and filmmaker Douglas Gordon teams up with French artist Philippe Parreno to create a work glorious in its simplicity.

The film was made by training 17 cameras, under the supervision of acclaimed cinematographer Darius Khondji, solely on footballer Zinédine Zidane over the course of a single match between Real Madrid and Villareal.

Zidane himself recounts, in voice-over, what he can and cannot remember from his matches. Magnificently edited and accompanied by a majestic score from Scottish rock heroes Mogwai, this is not only the greatest football movie ever made, but also one of the finest studies of man in the workplace, an ode to the loneliness of the athlete and the poise and resilience of the human body.

9th February 2007

27th January 2007

26th January 2007

Get the autograph signing right and the rest will follow - by Harry Pearson

The Guardian Unlimited Jan 26, 2007.

In order to become a world-class athlete you must first master the no-look autograph and be able to touch your toes.

When I was at primary school I regularly played football with a boy who went on to sign professional terms with the local First Division club. The thing that sticks in my mind about him was not his pace, ball control or apparently inexhaustible reservoir of spit, but the fact that when he punted the ball down field he spun nonchalantly away without looking to see where it had gone.

When I or any of his other contemporaries gave a football the full welly we stood transfixed, eyes trained on the disappearing pill until we were certain it would not smash a sitting room window, or snap the radio aerial off Mr Garbutt the chemist's brand new Austin Princess. By contrast, the future pro displayed an absolute confidence in the destination of his hoofs and, on the odd occasion that they did veer off course and knock the postmistress off her bike, the fact that he was looking in the opposite direction shifted all suspicion away from him.

Thomas Hardy wrote that "Aspects are within us; who seems most kingly is the king" and when it comes to sport it is hard to disagree. It is not the obvious things - power, speed, balance - that mark the star athlete out from the rest of us but the little, self-possessed actions: waving without checking to see if anyone is waving back, blowing your nose with your hand and not making a mess of your shirt, or bouncing up and down on the balls of your feet while simultaneously shaking your hands and revolving your head (I just tried this while waiting for the coffee machine to boil and knocked over a fruit basket and trod in the dog's water bowl. Sadly, it seems my Olympic dream is over).

Watch a top sportsman or woman signing autographs, for instance. They do not look at the person they are signing the autograph for, or even at the object they are signing. No, they simply stare into the distance as if gazing from the high battlements of their heavily fortified egos. I have spent practically every day for the past 20 years scribbling in notebooks, but if I tried to pull off the sort of insouciant look-no-eyes penmanship displayed by Shane Warne, Maria Sharapova and co I would end up scrawling my name all over the face of the person proffering their programme.

The phrase "painstaking attention to detail" is, in my experience, generally shorthand for "I haven't actually done anything yet, I'm still looking at the catalogues". But when it comes to sport, the minutiae are what really count. I was naturally delighted this week, therefore, to read Colin Jackson decrying the fact that many top British athletes do not even know how to touch their toes properly. A personal view is that if God had meant us to touch our toes he would have put them nearer to our knees and moved our stomachs off to the side, but Jackson knows more about these matters than me and if he sees top-quality toe-touching as a key area of track and field then I am backing him.

Clearly Britain's athletics future is not entirely predicated on being able to lace your shoes without putting your foot on the table, though. Other areas of fringe prowess will have to be targeted. Running vest adjustment, for example. Most of us can wear a vest without too much rigmarole, but a true athlete fiddles with their vest every few seconds to ensure that the shoulder position of the straps is just right.

This also applies to tennis, where a constant attempt to locate the exact correct position for the seam of your shirtsleeve takes up more of the players' time than actually hitting the ball. The head of British tennis, Roger Draper, acknowledges that fact and has vowed to get 200,000 British children nervously attempting to locate the prime collarbone-blouse interface by 2010, while Brad Gilbert, Andy Murray's coach, has already identified the young Scot's lack of a really top-class short-sleeve fidget technique, along with a rather non-aggressive serve-receiving shoe shuffle, as one of the aspects of his game he needs to work on if he is to be the first British player since Fred Perry to become a globally recognised logo.

Two other aspects of British athletes' techniques we really need to work seriously on are lap of honour lope and podium wobble-jaw. Using the former, an oddly stiff-legged, loose-footed jog, a normally extremely fast runner is able to make incredibly slow progress round the track much to the delight of the crowd and his sponsor. In the latter timing is crucial, with true greatness reserved for those who can remain smiling proudly until the precise moment when the band rev up for the "Send her victorious" bit and then suddenly begin to tremble and fight back tears in a manner that has the entire country reaching for the tissues and murmuring "Ah, bless".

Given what Colin Jackson had to say about the state of British athletics it may seem that we are getting ahead of ourselves here, but confidence breeds success and there is nothing more likely to stop our men and women winning gold than the fact that they do not carry themselves with the self-belief of those who have mastered these two non-essential essentials.

Wakeboarding

Wakeboarding is a surface water sport which involves riding the wake of a speed boat on a single board. It was developed from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. Before it was called wakeboarding it was called skurfing (ski + surfing).

As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing setup, but typically at slower speeds (16 - 23mph). Beginners start at slower speeds such as 18mph with shorter ropes(45 - 50 ft). More experienced wakeboarders use faster speeds such as 22.5 - 24 mph (speed changes can affect wake shapes drastically), but use 60 feet or longer ropes. Instead of using skis, the rider rides a single board, known as a wakeboard, with stationary non-release bindings for each foot, standing sideways as on a snowboard or skateboard.

The boards, which can float, are typically 120 - 147cm long, depending on the weight of the rider, and up to 45cm wide (shorter and wider than snowboards). Unlike snowboards, whose edges taper in towards the center, the edges of a wakeboard are widest in the middle of the board, with a 15 - 25cm taper. When viewed from the side, a wakeboard has a concave shape; this is known as its "rocker." A board with a continuous rocker has a constant curve to it, and a board with a staged rocker (e.g. "three stage rocker") is made up of two or more straight sections at different angles that approximate a curve.

Predator vs F50

Adidas is currently running a Predator vs F50 campaign.

The Predator is worn by Kaka, Ballack, Riquelme, Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Van Persie, Neville and Reo-Coker.

The F50 is worn by Messi, Robben, Podolski, Fred, Cole, Defoe, Dyer, O Shea and Wright Phillips.

Which one would you choose?

Best Game of all time?

BBC Radio Five Live is celebrating the 80th anniversary of football commentary with a special commentary during the Arsenal v Manchester United game at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. The station is also setting up debates in pubs and offices across the nation, by inviting listeners to choose the greatest football match ever broadcast from a shortlist of 10 compiled by a panel consisting of Sir Trevor Brooking, Barry Davies and, erm, Steve Claridge. So, 1966 World Cup final or the Liverpool v Arsenal title decider from 1989? You decide. Vote online here

NHL's Best Punch-Ups

Zoo Magazine lists NHL's best punch-ups.

Number 1 is in 2002, during an AHL game, Eric Godard knocked out Andrew Peters. No wonder he tried to escape another beating in the big league when his Buffalo Sabres met Godard's New York Islanders. He failed. Watch the clip here

Adidas & Porsche Gear

Porsche Track Top Look fast. Look classic. This sleek track top is inspired by the iconic colors and refined details of some of Porsche's finest creations.

Front slash pockets; Right chest pocket Full-front zip Diagonal stripes across front Applied 3-Stripes down sleeves Trefoil and adidas wordmark on right chest pocket 52% cotton / 48% polyester double-knit Imported

Smart, very smart - what do you think?

Adidas Techfit - as used by Chelsea

Adidas Techfit Very similar to Nike's Pro gear, this skin-tight apparel boosts sporting performance by squeezing and supporting muscles and giving better bounce-back during exertion.

Win a Playstation 3!

Zoo magazine is offering you the chance to win the console everyone wants, two months before it officially launches over here. To win email Zoo at competitions@zooweekly.co.uk (subject line "PS3") with your answer to the following question: Tell us which company is desperately trying to get this console out on UK shelves in two months' time: A)Nintendo, B)Microsoft or C)Sony? Good luck!

Ronaldo's Way

Gemma Dating Footy Star?

Could Ex-Hollyoaker Gemma Atkinson be the next Wag on the block?

According to The Sun she is.

The paper reports that she's getting up close and personal with Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano Ronaldo.

Gem, who's currently competing in ITV's Soapstar Superstar, has boasted to pals about her romps with the Man United winger, according to the paper.

It also reveals how the two have been meeting up at his Cheshire mansion.

Apparently it all started when he spotted Gemma at a party, asked for her number then called for a date.

Swift work Ron.

And now Gemma's a smitten kitten. The paper says she told a friend: "He's gorgeous in every way and things are going really well."

However, her spokesman declined to comment on the relationship.

In Rocky's footsteps

Ever since the first Rocky film, fans have been running up the most famous steps in America in homage to their boxing hero. And their stories are just as inspirational as that of their idol, Sarfraz Manzoor discovers

Tuesday January 23, 2007 The Guardian

Mehdi Jabrane had dreamed of making the pilgrimage. Born to a Moroccan Muslim father with a drink problem and a French Catholic mother, 25-year-old Jabrane grew up in France in a housing project for immigrant workers. His parents divorced when he was 16. "Because I never used to talk with my father," he says, "I always tried unconsciously to find a paternal figure."

And then one night this lost soul saw the film Rocky. "I was shocked," he says, "because a guy from nowhere made an incredible thing, becoming the world champion, a thing he never dreamed because it was so far from his reality." Jabrane became obsessed with the film and one scene in particular: the boxing hero running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Jabrane knew he had to run the steps himself. In 1998, after four months mopping floors, he had the money to fly to the US and emulate his idol. Freshly inspired, he returned home and began to turn his life around. The high school dropout got a degree and a job with a pharmaceutical firm. These days, whenever the motivation slips he returns to Philadelphia to run the Rocky steps. "I feel great, untouchable, proud," he says.

Jabrane is not the only Rocky disciple to make the pilgrimage. Fans have been re-enacting the famous scene ever since the release of the original, Oscar-winning Rocky film back in 1976. Michael Vitez, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, has seen them almost every day of the 22 years he has been in the city. "Everybody who lives here sees people do this," he says. "It always struck me how happy they are when they reach the top. I knew in my gut that I would find great stories there."

Vitez was so intrigued by who these people were and what compelled them to make the journey to Philadelphia that he and photographer Tom Gralish spent a year outside the Museum of Art listening to their stories. "We were purists," Vitez says. "We didn't want to interfere with their experience. I called it following the Star Trek Non-Interference Directive. I didn't want to interfere with the Rocky moment until it was over. We'd just hang and wait and then we'd approach them."

Fifty-two of Vitez's interviews have now been brought together in a new book, Rocky Stories.

During the end sequence of the new Rocky film, Rocky Balboa, Stallone acknowledges the power of that myth. As the credits roll we see footage of ordinary men, women and children running up the steps - among them Vitez and Gralish.

Send us your Rocky Footage and be featured on isporty TV!

Rocky Stories: Tales of Love, Hope and Happiness at America's Most Famous Steps, by Michael Vitez and Tom Gralish, is published by Paul Dry Books, price £11.90.

Celebrity fit club

They are some of the best-selling DVDs on the market, but beyond the vaguely famous faces and the thumping music, are celebrity home fitness regimes actually any good? The Guardian's writers to put them to the test.

Latinasize with Lilia Kopylova from Strictly Come Dancing, £17.99

Lilia promises that if you do her exercises you will "lose weight without realising it" so that you can wear "all those dresses with all those stones on them". It's an incentive. What follows, though, is a miserable experience. We begin with the least rigorous warm-up imaginable followed by 10 minutes each of salsa, rumba, cha-cha, samba and jive. It is very dull and my heart rate went up only briefly, doing the jive, which appeared to be the only dance that Lilia enjoyed. Lilia has no connection with the background dancers and there is no banter, just awkwardness. And the camera manages to cut away from her whenever she does a complicated step, so it is tricky to follow. If you love the TV programme, or want to learn basic steps, you might like a look. But if you want to get fit, have a dance down the disco instead. Katharine Viner

For more reviews click here

Snow Land to for 14 winter sports to be built in East Anglia

Opposition mounts to plan for £350m ski dome housing 14 winter sports

It has been called Center Parcs on Ice; the 21st century solution to winter sports in the era of global warming amid dire predictions that climate change will spell doom for many traditional ski resorts. But a giant indoor complex in the heart of East Anglia, complete with specially manufactured snow, is not pleasing everyone.

SnOasis, a £350m project to create a snow dome in Suffolk, would include the world's largest indoor ski slope and facilities for 14 different winter sports. Read the full article here.

Briton claims 3,600-mile world record

British skateboarder David Cornthwaite yesterday claimed the world skateboarding record after completing a five-month, 3,618-mile journey across Australia. The previous record, of 3,001 miles, was set by US skater, Jack Smith, in 2003.

The greenest games ever - Tony Blair

Exactly 2012 days from today, the London Olympic games will get under way. I know that the opening ceremony on July 27 2012 will spark the same sense of excitement and joy that erupted across the country when we heard that, against all the odds, London's bid had been successful. Everything leads to, and culminates in, a glorious festival of sport for Olympians and Paralympians. But it cannot end there. The enduring success of the games is measured in the years that follow, not in the time it takes for them to take place.

The 2012 games will be a catalyst for one of the most extensive urban and environmental regeneration programmes ever seen in the UK. The new Olympic Park under construction in the Lower Lea Valley will revive one of the most deprived areas in the country. Thousands of jobs will be created. Transport links will be transformed. Thousands of homes for key workers will be built. Parts of the landscape that have been wasteland will spring to life.

It is probably the case that the title of greenest games ever belongs to ancient Athens. But we can aspire to be the greenest games of the modern era. We will use sustainable building methods, renewable energy and low-emission transport, all with the purpose of reducing the carbon footprint.

We can be as confident about this as we can about the progress of the whole construction. London is further ahead at this stage in its preparations than any previous host city, as the International Olympic Committee itself said last year. In the nature of construction of this complexity, there will be obstacles that it is not yet possible to foresee. There will always be pessimists who claim every setback is a catastrophe. The same people no doubt said that even to bid was a waste of time. I am glad we ignored the doom-mongers then, and we will ignore them now.

That said, I fully understand the focus on the cost of the games. The Olympic Delivery Authority will be publishing its budget in the coming weeks. Financial planning remains ahead of Sydney, which submitted its budget two years before the games, and of Beijing, which waited four years after winning the bid to publish its budget.

The buildings will be there in time. The investment will be made. That is non-negotiable. With the focus shifting to the hard work of delivery, milestones like today provide a chance to reflect on just what the games will mean for Britain. London won a nail-biting contest because our bid was ambitious and inspirational. In particular, there was an unprecedented focus on the games' legacy - the long-term benefits for local communities, the environment, the economy and sport.

What is also certain is that the games will focus the entire world's attention on London and the UK. More Countries will participate at the London games in 2012 than there are members of the UN. We will gain hugely from demonstrating to the world just what an outward-looking, dynamic, diverse and tolerant city and country London and Britain now are.

During the next 2,012 days we have the opportunity to send out a clear message to the world about British values. Staging the Olympic games in London, home to 200 different ethnic groups representing every faith and religion, will send a powerful message about tolerance and cultural understanding.

So the Olympic games are an extra-ordinary opportunity. We are privileged to have been given this chance and we must now strive together to make the most of it, for the benefit of future generations.

Get a Free trampoline when you join Eat Right

Guardian Unlimited - Healthy Thinking Lose weight and get fit with Eat Right, the Guardian's healthy eating club. Join from just £2.99 a week and they will design you a personalised diet and exercise plan, with support from their team of expert nutritionists. Sign up before the end of January and you will also receive a free exercise trampoline worth £19.99. To sign up click here

Tent Guide 2007

A bit spoilt for choice with the variety of tents around at the moment? Need a good guide to sort the rif-raf from the remarkable? Camping Magazine have come to the rescue with a 32 page guide, free with their February issue. Check it out online too.

L361 HYP - London's top 10 ticket louts

The owner of a grey Nissan Serena (L361 HYP) tops the list of London's "most wanted" parking offenders. The driver has notched up a total of 209 penalties worth nearly £21,000. I wonder how you could begin to explain this?

Win a family tent!

As soon as it gets a bit warmer, we can all start thinking about the annual family camping trip. But what if you've outgrown your tent, it's a bit worse for wear or you simply fancy a brand spanking new one? No need to worry, go grab a copy of Camping and enter its fantastic competition to win a Lokon Vario tent.

Win a Weekend of Climbing and Photography Instruction

For your chance to win this fantastic photography instruction weekend, simply enter online at www.climber.co.uk

Women's Health

Feeling the error of your Christmas and New Year indulgent ways? Go and check out this months Women's Health (Jan/Feb). It has all the info you need to know to make this year your healthiest ever. Complete with fitness tests, tips and exercises, it even provides a handy poster so that you never need forget what you need to do to create your fittest year yet. You can even use the program online. It really does start now...

Happiness - and how to achieve it

The Ecologist(FEB) features Happiness - and how to achieve it, by Bill McKibben.

Climate change isn't juast a threat. It's an opportunity for us to live happier, more fulfilling lives. The fossil fuel age changed every detail of western human life - where we lived, how we travelled (and how much), what we ate, how our economies worked. But there were two changes in particular that it wrought - huge changes. Changes so huge they redefine the meaning of huge. One is physical - the sudden onset of a rapid warming that will change the very geography of the planet in almost unbelievable fashion over the next century. We live on a different earth already, and it is going to get worse fast. Way worse. The other psychological - cheap fossil fuel tipped the balance in the modern mind between self as individual and self as member of community. It made us different people. Worse people. And so here's the good news - fighting either problem means fighting them both. We've been backed into a corner, and the only way our is the right way...

Win a trip to Barcelona and tickets to the Nou Camp!

FourFourTwo has teamed up with the ATP, the UK's leading provider of European football weekends. To give you and a comp anion the chance to win a trip to Barcelona.

The prize includes: return flights to Barcelona; two nights' accommodation, including breakfast, at a central 3-star hotel; two tickets to the Barcelona vs Levante in April; and two tickets to the Barcelona museum.

To be in with a chance of winning this superb prize vist FourFourTwo

The men who changed Football

FourFourTwo(FEB) Magazine features Richard Keys and Andy Gray and the men who they think changed football. They are:

*Abramovich *Cantona *Bosman *Beckham *Wenger Who do you think most changed British Football?

Ferrari F1 tie with world's costliest ad

Brand Republic LONDON - Shell is to seal off the City of London and turn it into a mini Grand Prix-style racing circuit, as part of the filming of an ad highlighting its partnership with the Ferrari Formula One team.

The TV execution, whose production cost £2m, making it the most expensive ad ever, will promote Shell's high-performance V-Power fuel. It is intended to support Shell's positioning as the most innovative fuel brand. The ad will feature Ferrari F1 cars racing through some of the world's most famous cities, including New York and Sydney.

The London leg of the ad, being created by JWT London, will be shot on 17 February, with the execution set to air globally in March.

Ferrari F1 test-drivers will be used to race the cars in all the cities except for the final straight in Sydney. A Ferrari enthusiast and owner of one of the marque's recent F1 cars will drive the final leg.

The Ferrari activity follows last June's "Made to move" campaign. The multimillion-pound global campaign was the first advertising to be run by Shell since the launch of Optimax in 2001.

The most expensive ad to date is widely acknowledged to be British Airways' "face" ad from 1989.

Mountain Biking Madness

These guys are either very brave or very stupid. Have a look at this Mountain Biking Madness

Paula Radcliffe's advice to teenage athletes

Athletics Weekly (Jan) features World marathon record-holder Paula Radcliffe, offering young distance runners guidance as they begin the early stages of their athletics careers. Paula Radcliffe was no teenage phenomenon but her methods as a young runner laid the groundwork for exceptional performances later.

Monster Children

Monster Children is the coolest mag we have seen - from Australia for boarders. Packed with funky content it is a true masterpiece.

2012 Days

2012 Days to the 2012 Olympics. All over the media today and probabaly good news as yesterday was officially the most depressing day of the year - post Christmas, debt, new years resoltions broken, still over a week to pay day but now today only 2012 days to London 2012 and 9 days till payday....

We needed cheering up after yesterday so I'll get some training in now - is ten pin bowling an Olympic sport yet??!

Detroit Motor Show

The Detroit Motor Show took place last week and showcased some of the fastest, coolest, head turning, eye popping cars to roam our world's roads. The line up included a mix of production and concept cars.
To have a look at the show gallery click here.

Win an Xbox 360 and World Snooker 2007

Nuts Magazine is giving you the opportunity to Win an Xbox 360 and the latest Sega game World Snooker Championship 2007. To enter click here!

New Stuff - World Snooker Championship 2007

World Snooker Championship 2007 is Sega's latest game. Players can create their own pool player or play as one of the world's top pros in 20 officially licensed pool tournaments including the Mosconi Cup, World Cup, and U.S. Open. In Golden Cue mode, players test their versatility by challenging other pro-players to games of eight and nine-ball, and other cuesports within the same tournament. Pool sharks can also show their true skills in the World Trickshot Championship, where players can pull off their favorite crowd-pleasers from a vast selection of trickshots. Have fun and be sure to let us know what you think...