BLOG POSTS ARCHIVE - February 2007
Posted Feb 28th 2007, 6:29pm
More nonsence from FIFA
Not only did we invent the bloody game, but we have the best domestic league in the world and the biggest support-base.
But that's irrelevant where FIFA are concerned, and there's more chance of America hosting the tournament for the second time in 24 years than us getting a shot at it.
Football isn't all about being pragmatic and PC. Governing bodies are at times allowed to make decisions based on supply and demand for the game.
The fact they choose not to has as much to do with football as it does the rest of the ridiculous PC-frenzied idiots that run things in the world.
sigh
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/6403761.stm
Posted Feb 27th 2007, 3:46pm
Montella madness
I don't know about you, but when Montella signed on-loan at Fulham and bumbled around in the reserves for the first couple of weeks, I thought to myself :
'Ah, there's another former Italian, a name from the past, trying to realise an English dream, all a bit too late.'
I mean, we've seen it before with Roberto Mancini at Leicester City and Attilio Lombardo hairing his way to Crystal Palace.
The spent-out forces, the has-been's. Don't get me wrong, they're still a big lure, and they're still more than capable of winning a match in the flick of an eye, but in Montella, just like all the others, they're past it.
Right?
Wrong.
Montella is the business! Still only 32, he is short of losing is touch for a while longer, and with a scoring record that this journalist will not even bother to cheapen with a cliched simile.
For Roma, Sampdoria, Genoa and Empoli combined, 186 goals in 300 starts.
Now we all know Roma, like most other clubs, have got their problems, but even they know he is still the real ticket having this week negotiated what appears to be a pretty likely summer move to those other Italian minnows, AC Milan - who are reportedly happy to cough up his £72,000 A WEEK wages.
Which, at the end of a somewhat process, begs a couple of questions.
- why is he at Fulham?
- and why the hell is he behind Brian McBride, Heidar Helguson and Collins John in the pecking order?
It really is a funny old game.
Only one take-off for the aeroplane so far ...
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Posted Feb 26th 2007, 2:52pm
Most watched television sports
What a fantastic testament to the heightened popularity of darts it is, to be named as the number two TV sport behind football, according to today's The Times.
An astonishing fact, though maybe one based in a false element of surprise.
Darts has come a long way since the cliched image of fat blokes in a pub.
Just look at the number of stars coming out of Holland, where the staple diet is arrows in a leisure centre, not in the boozer.
Add to that the huge appeal that has come out of the creation of the PDC, and no disrespect to the BBC, but left with the same BDO product they were never going to explore (and maybe exploit) the various angles that Sky have for major tournaments and Premier League fixtures.
Premier League darts is every bit as tense as parts of the BDO World Championships, and I can't help feeling that with another swarm of players heading to the PDC, the days of the BDO (in its current form at least) might be drawing to a close.
In the meantime, lets celebrate the fact that as a TV sport it's up there with the best.
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Posted Feb 24th 2007, 10:58am
League Cup legend
Had the pleasure of speaking to a Carling Cup legend this week for a piece on Sky Sports.
As below ...
"For some, the League Cup's reputation has never really repaired itself from its association with electrical retailer Rumbelows - not a name synonymous with class, prestige, or longevity, writes James Evans.
But if you can look past the hovering shadow of its older wiser brother - the FA Cup - and close your ears to irreverent fixture congestion mutterings that emanate from around the Wenger breakfast table, the competition has considerable worth, plus a history that the Champions League can only dream about.
Alan O'Neill was a member of the Aston Villa side that lifted the first ever League Cup, way back in 1961. A scorer, as his side overturned a 2-0 1st-leg defeat at Rotherham United, the affable Geordie spoke to Sky Sportzine about the competition's birth, and scuppers talk of its supposed imminent death.
"People talk about the League Cup maybe going stale these days, but back then it had a reputation too: a suspicious one," O'Neill said.
"No-one really grasped what it was meant to be, and some clubs even chose not to take part as they saw it as just another Cup the Football Association had thrown in. Over the coming years clubs and fans began to accept it but there was excitement right from the start at Villa.
"What with it being a two-legged affair back then, we were confident we could turn around a pretty poor performance up at Rotherham, and so it proved, with me getting the goal to bring it back to 2-2 on aggregate.
"Fans would come out in their droves back then and Villa Park was packed, and the roof went off when Peter McParland grabbed the winner."
Of course, football back in the early 60's was working-class fare. Why, like today's post-match presentations, have vast stages erected on pitches, reams of ticker-tape and a PA system blurting out something resembling the soundtrack to the latest Vin Diesel flick? Back then they didn't even bother with medals...
"It's sounds strange but there were no medals," he continues. "We just got these tankards each, which came on a kind of wooden base. I suppose it would seem funny these days, but they were ideal for the post-match celebrations!"
O'Neill's £90 win bonus was over three times his normal weekly wage of £27.50 - indeed, had Jimmy Hill and co not succeeded in lifting the wage cap in that very same year, it would have taken the Villa man - who went on to play for Plymouth, Bournemouth, Toronto and Vancouver - some 90 years to earn what Chelsea's Michael Ballack pockets in just a week.
"I don't resent the modern-day players any of the money they earn. At the end of the day, they're going to be turning around and thinking 'my club gets £30million for finishing bottom of the Premiership - too right I'm going to ask for a good slice of that'.
"And of course the game has moved on so much it's almost incomparable these days. One thing that never changes though is the football itself, and Sunday should be a great advert for the competition with two top-quality sides.
"People say that the competition is losing its appeal, but the Millennium Stadium is sold out and there will be the usual millions watching it at home, so it's not doing that bad after all.
"As for the match itself, I hope Arsenal win it. They're a bit hit-and-miss at the moment but when they turn it on they are something else, and are playing the best football I've ever seen, and I've played against Pele!"
That meeting with Pele nearly didn't happen. Today's footballers frequently come in for criticism about how much of their time they give back to the game, but as O'Neill explains, the Brazilian wizard's personal demands were quite something else.
"While at Vancouver we had arranged a match against Pele's Santos side. By the time kick-off came around the stadium was full and we were ready to go, but there was no sign of their team.
"The minutes passed and still nothing, and after half-an-hour it was discovered that Pele was refusing to come out until he had received his match fee of $25,000, and was happy to spend the evening in the changing room until it turned up.
"Someone had to head out and return with the money which was handed over in a plastic bag. As if that wasn't strange enough, exactly an hour into the game Pele sauntered to the bench and was substituted as he'd played his allocated sixty minutes, and wasn't going to hang around for a second longer!"
Returning to this Sunday's Cup Final, Alan believes the tactical battle could be fascinating to watch.
"Arsenal obviously want to play openly, though whether they're allowed to is another thing and it will be a real tactical meeting of minds between Mourinho and Wenger. Chelsea can be so defensive; at times they're playing with three strikers, seven defenders and a keeper, as all of their midfield men apart from Frank Lampard can operate as extra centre or full-backs.
"The style obviously works for them, but for pure entertainment and if there's any justice then Arsenal should win."
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Posted Feb 22nd 2007, 6:46pm
Holy Foley
Interview piece I did with Republic of Ireland under-21 Player of the Year Kevin Foley :
"A problematic season on the pitch for Luton Town has been made somewhat more palatable by the continuing emergence of Republic of Ireland under-21 Player of the Year Kevin Foley.
The youngster who - despite being raised in the town - retains a fierce loyalty to his homeland, chats to Luton At Large man Frank Grice about football, family, and Heinz baked beans.
“I'm delighted with how things are going and being recognised as someone for the future is great for a player's confidence”, he said. “I've already had two Young Player of the Year awards at Luton and that, combined with the encouragement of the manager Mike Newell and support of my family has been a big thing for me.”
Foley, who has just turned 22, insists he is not one to set goals, though admits he has contemplated his chances of making it to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with Steve Staunton's senior squad.
“I've been in a couple of the main squads and it's a great taster. Having a manager who, in his day, was a defender like me helps a lot, but the whole squad have been really welcoming, and once you get the taste of something that big you want to keep going back for more, so I've got real hopes I will involve in three years time.”
Foley was a 9-year-old playing for his local club team Barnfield Colts when he and two others were invited to join a clutch of other youngsters from the area at a regular Luton Town training camp.
“It's obviously exciting getting picked out at such a young age, but all you want to do is play football so you don't think too much about where it might all lead.”
Indeed, it was to be almost five years before Foley sampled real glory when, at the age of 14, he and his Cardinal Newman school team scooped the Heinz National Schools Cup.
“It was an amazing experience. We didn't think much of it at first and joked that the winners would receive a tin of beans or a bottle of ketchup. But we progressed through our area heats to make it to the national stages, and eventually through to the Final which was held at Highbury.
“It was great to be travelling away from home comforts while representing your local area, and I think having tasted that success at such a fantastic stadium I knew what I wanted to do with my life.
“That's not to say I stopped bothering at school. Working hard was always important because at the end of the day you never know what's around the corner. Even now with things going well at Luton, I know not to take anything for granted.”
In 2002 Foley had impressed sufficiently to earn his first run-out with the Hatters first-team, coming on as a 2nd-half substitute in a Football League Trophy match at Woking.
He appeared three more times that season, and registered his first senior goal against Yeovil Town. However, it was only after a hugely impressive pre-season that Foley earned his chance to make a permanent stamp on the starting eleven, at the beginning of the 2003/04 campaign.
“We were playing Rushden & Diamonds on the first day at Kenilworth Road and it was to be my first league start. Other players have said how they rise to that moment and embrace it. I wanted to feel that, especially as Luton were my hometown club, but my over-riding thoughts were 'what am I doing here?'. I would rather have been anywhere else than stood in that tunnel waiting to run out!
“But once I had a few good touches those nerves subsided and I didn't look back.”
Having lost several key players over the past six months, it is maybe understandable that Luton look likely to end the season in a scrap for survival near the foot of the Championship.
“We hit a bad patch over the festive period and haven't been helped by injuries,” Foley continues.
“If we can get a bit of consistency I've no doubt we'll get the points we need to stay up, but we need to make Kenilworth Road a tough place to come to again. It was the home form from last year that really saw up surpass expectations and many teams are put off by having fans so close to the pitch.
“Making that work to our advantage is key to our survival hopes.”
Whatever the scoreline when Luton host Ipswich Town on March 17th, there will certainly be cause for celebration for the Foley clan.
“St Patrick's Day has always meant a lot to me and my family and you can guess the way we like to enjoy ourselves. A fair few relatives come over from Ireland to stay with us, and this year will be no different, so hopefully we'll be toasting three points that day as well."
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Posted Feb 21st 2007, 11:34am
Tyre stacking
I'm sure it has been done before, but it doesn't get any less funny each time you see it!
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Posted Feb 20th 2007, 1:03pm
Champions League footy
Couple of big nights on the way.
It's a given these days that English clubs go into European fixtures as confident favourites (Liverpool aside!), though really wasn't all that long ago when the aftermath of the European ban had us a long way behind the style and brand of football that had developed in our absence.
What price an all-English Final this year?
That really would be something to prove this is the best league in the world.
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Posted Feb 19th 2007, 11:43am
Peter Holmes
Random Peter Holmes interview we did for Sky Sports on Friday.
Incredible that his manager (Mike Newell at Luton) hasn't spoken to him for 6 weeks!
"Luton Town midfielder Peter Holmes says he would consider staying at League One side Chesterfield when his loan period expires.
The 26-year-old former Sheffield Wednesday man was kept on at Saltergate for an second month by Spirites boss Roy McFarland after a string of encouraging performances, having been frozen out at Kenilworth Road for much of the season.
"It was very frustrating at Luton. I still don't really know what I did wrong having started the first game of the season at Stoke, but I'm obviously not in Mike Newell's plans and I have to accept that," he told Sky Sports.com.
"I went to him at the start of January and said I wanted to go out on loan to start playing football again, and the move to Chesterfield is really working out at the moment, and it's great playing regularly again."
Holmes has played every minute of his five matches for the Derbyshire outfit, and scored in the 1-1 draw at Huddersfield at the end of January.
"There is a noticable difference in the standard, and you have to get used to the difference in style of play, particularly as we're at the wrong end of the table at the moment.
"But we've got some big games coming up and we know that if we can string two or three wins together we'll pull clear of danger.
"There's obviously a chance I could stay on here longer, and I haven't heard from Mike [Newell] since I first came up here at the start of January, so I don't think I'm in his plans.
"I'd definitely consider it if the option came to extend my time here."
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Posted Feb 16th 2007, 2:49pm
iSporty party
Good to meet a good number of isporty and League Reports Network people at the isporty launch do last night.
Slick white shirt and tie effort from Terry Venables too!
Good night had by all from the looks of some of the faces upon departure ...
Good luck isporty.
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Posted Feb 15th 2007, 8:53am
Where are they now?
I'm writing a few features on ex-footballers and what they're doing now.
If anyone knows of any doing strange or peculiar jobs please let me know as I'd be really interested to include them.
The BBC have got the right idea (I don't say that too often) with this kind of thing :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/6358941.stm
Always found it quite sad that footballers lose their way and drift into obscurity.
Mind you, at least they had the experience in the first place I suppose ...
And not many people can say they've been changed by Brazilian midfielders at Wembley and the neighbour's dog down the garden path, eh Webby.
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Well, Rory Allen now works for the Foreign Office. I learnt this by rading a Guardian article yesterday. You´ll find more info here:
http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,,2012031,00.html
And Micky Droy runs an electrical shop in Kensal Green. Random, I know, but hopefully useful, James.
http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,,2012031,00.html
And Micky Droy runs an electrical shop in Kensal Green. Random, I know, but hopefully useful, James.
Posted by Matthew Hirtes, Feb 15th 2007, 10:24am
Posted Feb 13th 2007, 7:40pm
Lard again
I don't think I'm a good advert for this site!
Unfortunately an 8am start and pretty constant work all day means no trip to the gym today.
Tomorrow morning it is calling me.
On a different note, a couple of people have asked about 5 (and 6)-aside football from some of my blog stuff.
For those London-based check out the Elms 6-aside league in Docklands.
It's where we do vague impressions of footballers and is a real run league with qualified referees and decent pitches - well, sort of decent pitches.
They also update all details on their website including results, league tables, and even profiles.
Go to Google and type in 'Elms Docklands' - just should do the trick.
Bon chance.
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Posted Feb 12th 2007, 2:14pm
Jamie Noon interview
Jamie Noon interview I did prior to the Italy game.
What would be be saying now?! (Will find out next week!)
Jamie Noon Piece ... (Scotland / Italy)
“While it was a shame not to be involved with the full England set-up last weekend for their opening Six Nations clash with Scotland, my path to recovery saw me lead the Saxons team out on Friday night for an A-game with Italy in Exeter.
It was a massive honour to lead out an England team. To me, it doesn't matter at what level, as to Captain your country is really something special. We were left with a mixture of experience and youth after a few disruptions with players being called into the main squad, plus Mike Catt withdrawing. So at the end of the night to put on an entertaining performance was great, helped in no small part by some excellent facilities and a terrific crowd of 8,500. I thought Shaun Perry was excellent and he is really hitting some form at the right time.
Of course, that was just a prelude to the real business which came on Saturday afternoon, and what a great win against Scotland it was. It goes without saying, I'm bitterly disappointed that my ankle injury has held me back so far this year, but I was delighted for the guys because on the back of all the bad stuff that happened during the Autumn internationals, this was a great way to draw a line under things.
I believe England will certainly have harder matches. If you analyse the game properly you'll see that our forwards were allowed to dominated, and I was surprised the Scots didn't put us under more pressure for sustained periods of the game.
Certainly, allowing us to play that way gave Harry Ellis a great base to play off and a real chance to express himself, and the rewards were there for all to see.
We made the win look pretty easy in the end, and that was the England of old, so hopefully we can carry it on this weekend when we'll be favourites to emerge from Italy with the win.
The opposition will be smarting from their heavy defeat to France last weekend, and will come at us with a point to prove, and knowing that there is a lot of publicity around the England team at the moment they'll be even more keen to take a scalp. True, most of that media attention seems to surround my Newcastle Falcons team-mate Jonny Wilkinson, and it was a great return for him after such a long time out.
I don't think he'll get such a smooth ride against the Italians as he did at Twickenham on Saturday. Maybe Italy aren't the bully-boys of old, but they certainly know what they're doing and will be keen to despatch a few early tackles – the kind of tactic I was sure Scotland would pursue, but surprisingly didn't.
Italy have some good experienced characters, are typically passionate, but also physical and very fit, and although we typically emerge from these Six Nations clashes having racked up a good number of points, it has been said before that sometimes the scores haven't reflected the amount of pressure we've been put under. I've no doubt England will do well in this game, but they'll have to fight for it.
Italy are a good example of a side who have developed their game to suit the conditions of the Six Nations. When the tournament was changed to welcome them in they were still quite unknown, but now in this professional era they have players spread across Europe and are a lot closer to knowing how to hurt their opponents when it comes to it.
If you look at our performances against Italy in the Six Nations over the last three or four years, there's a rough trend of us scoring less and them scoring more, and I think last year's 31-16 win – even though we were playing away from home – was the first real time we knew we'd been in a battle. Their defeat to France may well spur them to make this weekend's match another tough test.
Coach Brian Ashton has kept faith with the side, just making two slight changes with Iain Balshaw and Nick Easter coming in. From my point of view it's obviously disappointing and very frustrating as I would have loved to have been involved, but there's an element of responsibility to the players, which is right.
Competition is always good and I think we are beginning to see a real fight for places develop with the World Cup on the horizon. I can only carry on and work as hard as I can, and wait for my chance to get back in.
That's the way it has to be, with the team picked on merit, and where reputations count for nothing. There are real foundations to build on now and these are certainly exciting times once again for English rugby.”
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Posted Feb 9th 2007, 3:57pm
Gym update 2
Just horrendously busy this week and to my horror I've only been twice.
Sacking off football tomorrow so that I can (a) work some more, and (b) get to the gym.
What a life.
The attached image may or may not be an accurate representation of me.
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Posted Feb 7th 2007, 2:14pm
6-aside, Docklands league
Latest match report - what a shocking night's work.
MATCH REPORT - WEEK 5
Future Fury week 5
Future Fury 1-2 Golden Oldies
Future Fury 2-4 Spencey’s Puppies
“The Day Of Reckoning” (also known as “The Day We Cocked Up”)
Defenders who attack, midfielders who attack, attackers who attack. Friggin’ goalkeepers who attack.
Everyone’s a striker these days, everyone wants a piece of that goalscoring pie.
But defending? Defending is for wimps. Defending is for those kids at school who sat in the library at lunch reading up on the Crimean War, instead of fagging away on John Player Special’s behind the bikesheds.
And so it came to pass … the promotion party was to be a spree of goals, a netbusting fest of pearlers and screamers of the very highest order.
And it was.
For our opponents.
Since securing promotion last week, the club had endured seven days of celeb parties, binge-drinking and award ceremonies, and it had obviously taken its toll on Future Fury, as they effortlessly put on the two gash-est performances of the season in a double humiliation against Golden Oldies and Spencey’s Puppies.
In our defence (not that we had one – fnar) the Oldies had discovered some sort of anti-ageing cream, the like of which is only seen on those shoddy Sky channels, 300 and above. Foxed by this new youthful set-up, Fury found themselves two down in the opening exchanges.
Stunned, the Champions-elect fought back in the second half, forcing shots on goal from Neil, Evs and Dalts. With lairy Jim Cohen banished to the sidelines for a foul tirade of expletives that would have made Mike Reid blush, there seemed little way back into the match.
That was, until the youngest and most inept referee ever to take to a football pitch awarded Future a quite baffling penalty.
With all the sportsmanship of a Kanu / Overmars one-two, goal-hungry Dave D stepped up to pea-roll an ‘interesting’ penalty down the middle of the goal, and peeled away shirt-atop baldy crown.
GAME ON!
Or not, as it turned out, for after Big D almost snapped the crossbar with a curling free-kick, the Indian Paul Alcock soon blew up, leaving Future needing a win from their final match against the Pupps to take the Championship.
The match started predictably, two down within a matter of minutes thanks to a couple of fine counter-attacks which left ringer Beeney declaring, “Ah shucks, I’ve been stitched again.” And some.
It was all too much for Future Publishing’s record 11-aside goalscorer Evans, and thinking back to the finer days of Vinnie Jones and Steve McMahon, he took out an onrushing Puppies striker with a fair disgraceful chop to the shins.
Dismissed to the sin bin in shame (although, and I quote “I know I shouldn’t have done it but it felt bloody good”), Fury battled back to reduce the arrears when Smudger’s precise cross-field pass was smashed in by Dalton.
Deceptively looking more solid in the 2nd-half, the equaliser arrived when in desperately attempting get out of ginger Jim’s way, the lardy Evans – running backwards - fairly bulldozed a path through the visitors’ defence, and Cohen made his only meaningful contribution of the night by thundering in the leveller.
GAME ON AGAIN!
Or not, as it turned out … again. In going for the win, the all-blacks were caught at the back (for a change), and despite the Seaman-esque efforts of Rich in goal (smirk) the Puppies banged in two more near the end to put the gloss on a thoroughly rubbish 4-2 defeat.
Despondent, disgusted and disenchanted, Future trudged off knowing that they’d let themselves down, but most of all, Jim had let everyone down. Instant talk of free transfers spread around the camp, while statisticians furiously scoured the record books in search of a single more inept display by a player in the entire history of the Elms tournament.
Stat Attack (18 cert.)
Jim Cohen
On the Pitch 25 mins
Sent-Off 2 mins
Substitute 9 mins
Pass completion 1
Goals 1
Errors (Lost count)
Errors leading to opposition goals 3
Expletives (Lost count)
Anger rating 10/10
See you in the Premiership happy campers … heaven help us all!
James Evans.
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Posted Feb 7th 2007, 2:08pm
Gym update
Week is going well.
But for ruining my good gym work with seven pints, some greasy food, and a particularly poor game of darts last night, I'm been to the gym twice in three days.
It feels - unusual!
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Posted Feb 4th 2007, 2:28pm
My first blog entry
In short, my first admission of a public pledge to stick to my gym regime.
I've been pretty good up until now, but a stinking cold scuppered last week's plans of keeping up my three visits a week.
Fighting fit now, and will quickly rediscover the pain of early-morning runs and weights - starting tomorrow, Monday.
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Paul Dargan
Nonce
Matthew Hirtes
http://www.glgarden.org/foreverman/3.jpg
Paul Dargan