Having spent the weekend and the back end of last week with family and friends back in York, I came back to Sunderland yesterday to play in our football team’s 4-2 win in the first round of our cup competition. Followed that with a few pints with team mates. So I was already feeling wonderful when I woke up this morning.
Wasn’t expecting much in the way of presents but I’ve managed to scoop just short of £100, a gorgeous belt, a lovely leather wallet, a couple of books that I wanted and Talladega Nights on DVD. Add to that - my girlfriend took my out for a meal, and has ordered me some trainers I’ve wanted for ages from America. And my flatmate Mark got me a Nemanja Vidic t-shirt from Old Trafford. Awesome. I feel like a little kid, in such a good mood and the mass of presents have just put me in even better spirits.
My new uni semester starts today - so I’ve got some classes later on with strangers, but it’s my birthday so they’ll be nice to me, surely? Anyway, after uni I’ve got to make a few thank you phone calls, and then I’m going to spend a night in Newcastle with my utterly amazing friends, flatmates and football team mates.
After its winter hiatus, Prison Break is back. Rejoice!
I really didn’t think too much to Prison Break in series one, but I carried on watching curiously. I love it now. So to share my love, I’ve got some links for Season 2 Episode 14, which I believe was aired last night in the US - or it might be next week. Either way, miles ahead of us UK folk.
Why? You might be asking, as a lot of other people did that night.
Yorkshire Night Out, in three words. An end-of-season celebration for my football team, FC Panns Bank, which features a host of yorkshiremen, and proud ones at that. So, to commemorate our rather disappointing season, we all got dressed up in yorkshire themed clothing and took to the streets of Sunderland.
Other outfits included cricketers, a guy with a face mask shaped to Yorkshire, a rugby player and a scarecrow. Admitedly, I stood out a little bit, other people promised to come as yorkshire puddings and bridges, etc. It sounded like it was going to be a joyous occassion for strage outfits. But no, I seemed to be the only one who pulled out all the stops. I went as York Minster - one of the leading tourist attractions in York, the capital of Yorkshire. If you’re not entirely sure what it’s supposed to be, well, it’s a very big church. Strangely, a load of people had the nerve to tell me that the minster has “more windows” - which gained the response, “lets see your Minster then?”
Sunderland’s The Point got a bit of a shock when I walked in. The Point is the big night club in Sunderland, and Monday (the night we went out) is student night. I got a lot of stares - but also, a lot of free drinks. And somehow, I was approached by a lot of rather attractive women. Maybe I should don church outfits more often?
A Man Utd fan’s wife gave her hubby a £550 season ticket - four months after the Premiership kicked off.
She bought it last year but didn’t hand it to him until his 40th birthday earlier this month, reports the Sun.
Her blunder meant the fan missed 11 games. To make matters worse, she also bought her son a junior ticket.
A United supporter who sits near the man at Old Trafford said: “A few of us noticed the seats were empty.
“His wife mustn’t know much about football. He must be gutted.”
Wow. Just wow. Despite the fact its a gift, I’d still have to hit the woman.
And in other stupid news, also from Ananova:
Tattooist sued over penis prank
An Argentinean football fan is suing a tattooist who drew a penis on his back instead of his favourite team’s badge.
The teenager, who cannot be named, asked to have the Boca Juniors logo on his back.
But the tattoo artist was a supporter of rival team River Plate and decided to have some fun at his young customer’s expense.
The victim told Terra Argentina: “I could not see what he was tattooing because he didn’t have a mirror. I only saw it when I got home and showed it to my parents.”
A police spokesperson said: “The tattooist supports Boca Junior’s rival, River Plate, so he got annoyed when the teenager asked him to tattoo Boca’s symbol and decided to tattoo a penis instead. Unbelievable!”
On saturday, I got the train to Newcastle and mooched around a few bars in the early afternoon. The reason? Liverpool were hosting Chelsea. After Chelsea beat them 4-1 on their own ground I sensed they wanted payback, and that’s exactly what they got. Possibly the worst 10 minutes I’ve ever seen Chelsea played under Mourinho saw them concede a goal to Dirk Kuyt, and then Riise forced a very good save from Cech. Jermaine Pennant surprised everyone a few minutes later with an absolutely wonderful shot from outside the area. Pennant let it bounce in front of him and then hit the ball across the face of goal, and in off the bar, Cech had no chance! Was a wonderful goal to watch. And 2-0 was the way it stayed, thankfully.
The beauty of this result was that no matter what happened at Arsenal tomorrow, Manchester United wouldn’t be losing any ground to Chelsea whatsoever. And that was just wonderful.
I was also in Newcastle for another reason, I’d got my hands on tickets for Newcastle v West Ham. I went for a tour of St. James’ Park early last year, and the stadium is gorgeous. It’s so spacious - unlike other football grounds, you don’t have to stand up for people to get past your seat, there is so much leg room! The views from the Milburn stand, which I had to pay £40 to get into, are beautiful. The stand looks out over the whole of Newcastle City Centre - the tyne bridge, the metro arena and the civic centre are just a few things that stand out if you look closely.
Onto the football. Was a rather depressing first half, well for Newcastle anyway, the only noise in the whole 45 minutes coming from the West Ham fans. They went 2-0 up in the first half due to some very sloppy defending. Carlton Cole and Marlon Harewood with the goals - I was hoping to see Tevez play, but not only is he not in the side regularly but he got injured last weekend. Boo hoo. Newcastle clawed one back before half time, but it wasn’t until the second half that the atmosphere picked up. Newcastle equalised after around 60 minutes (I can’t tell you the exact time - St James’ doesn’t have a scoreboard! shocking) and for the last 30 minutes the Newcastle fans were in voice.
I say they were in voice - I didn’t hear any player chants or interesting chants of any kind. There was the regular rendition of “Toon! Toon! Toon!” and “United we love you!” (like every ______ United sing) but that was it. Before the 2 goals, all the fans seemed to do was grunt and shout “get it up the field”. And I’m not exaggerating, that is all I heard for the first 50/60 minutes of the game. What they should have been hoping for was that their boys would keep the ball, then maybe they wouldn’t have gone 2-0 down! But whatever, was an enjoyable experience nonetheless. Just wish Martins would have scored so I could have seen his celebratory acrobatics.
So after a somewhat entertaining game at St James’, a fantastic Liverpool win over Chelsea, I was sure that Manchester United would carry suit and atleast draw with Arsenal. In fact, I spent all of Sunday in Wetherspoons in preparation for our first showdown at the Emirates Stadium. The whole game was end-to-end, United dominated the first 10 minutes with 80% possession (incredible) but after that Arsenal really came in to it. There weren’t many definitive chances in the first half, so a 0-0 scoreline seemed fair. But the game started to stretch a little more in the second half, and eventually, Wayne Rooney opened the scoring. There’s some stupid statistics around Man United where if Rooney scores, we’ve only lost 1 in 50 games or something like that, and also, in a couple of years only 1 or 2 teams have been able to beat us when we’ve scored first. Those statistics coupled with the fact that so far the weekend had being going our way, seemed to guarantee us victory!
But that wasn’t to be the case. With 10 minutes to go, van Persie came on and equalised within minutes. Beating Gary Neville to a low cross at the back post. Shit. Oh well, on comes Heinze, draw will do I thought, atleast we’ve gained a point on Chelsea. Wrong again. 3 minutes into added on time - Thierry Henry, who’d done very little all game, springs up on the edge of the six yard box and scores a header straight through van der Sar. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Lost it with seconds to spare. And to a Thierry Henry header of all things.
I dashed from ’spoons as soon as the final whistle went. I really wanted us to get atleast something from our first visit to Arsenal’s new ground, and an extra point on Chelsea would have been magnificent. But it wasn’t to be. Man I hate Arsenal.
There’s only one thing that can cheer me up at a time like this… Enjoy!
One year ago today, Kobe Bryant dropped an amazing 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. Granted, the Toronto Raptors suck, but it was the second biggest points score ever. Second only to Wilt Chamberlain, who once scored 100 in a game, generations ago when the NBA wasn’t as competitive or as advanced as it is today.
Bask in his wonderment… Part 1:
And Part 2:
For the UK readers - this is basically like Wayne Rooney putting 7 or 8 away in a Premiership game. Simply unbelievable.
It’s about time we had some real activity in this January transfer window. And it’s about time the Glazers put hands in their pockets for a real transfer (Carrick doesn’t count, van Nistelrooy’s departure and the Obi Mikel settlement more than paid for that).
For the first time in their two years at Manchester United, it looks like the Glazers are backing Sir Alex with some financial clout - although it has to be said that should this deal go through they’ll have seriously overpaid for Hargreaves.
But you know what? It’s not me picking up the bill. And I’d like to think that even with Hargreaves costing £20mil, there’s still going to be money there to strengthen at the close of the season.
Hargreaves would be a great addition to the current United squad, as there isn’t a player like him there at the moment. Carrick and Scholes, who are ruling the central midfield positions, are great players - but in terms of destructive and defensive capabalities they aren’t the best. Hargreaves, while still not up there with Keane, reads the game well from defensive midfield and breaks up play. At the moment, Fergie is relying on John O’Shea to make the odd cameo when we require that kind of service in the midfield. And as any United fan or football expert will tell you, John O’Shea is NOT the man for that job.
I think you definitely have to question the price tag. Hargreaves is not Roy Keane - he is an effective player, but for £20 million he is neither a young prospect or one of Europe’s top players - which is what you’d expect for that price. Hargreaves is very good at what he does, but £20 million? Mascherano, a player of similar standard, looks like he could move to Liverpool for £6 million. Hargreaves is a player that I would expect us to have signed for £10 million, especially with him suffering a broken leg recently, and I certainly wouldn’t pay any more than £15 million for him!
Fergie clearly believes that Hargreaves is the man to fill that defensive anchor role that we’ve been missing this season. He is the kind of player that you don’t really need to field in home ties when it’s attack, attack, attack - but he’s the kind of player that you need in difficult away ties, difficult European ties and the type of player that will help you defend the slimmest of leads. If United get him, and it’s a big if, come next season he’ll be a huge benefit in games against the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and the big European teams. He provides options for the midfield, and that can only be a good thing.
It’s also a good sign that we’re not trying to find a foreigner to fill this role. Because Ferguson’s track record of foreign centre mids is god awful - Kleberson, Djemba Djemba were both nightmare signings - and while I don’t want to throw Veron into the mix because he’s a completely different type of player, that wasn’t the most successful buy either, was it? Hargreaves knows the English players, he knows the league and he knows the style of football in England. He’s got experience at the highest level - World Cup knockout stages, Champions league knockout stages and a tonne of domestic medals in Germany.
And in other good news, it looks like Gabriel Heinze is going nowhere, with Fergie saying that he paniced when he heard media reports that Gabby’s contract was up next summer. In fact, the contract runs until 2009, and Fergie is happy for it to stay that way. Hopefully that’ll signal an end to moves for Southampton left back, Gareth Bale. While he might be the eventual successor for Ashley Cole in the England squad, United have Evra+Heinze at left back right now, with a whole host of players able to fill that gap should injuries come around. So, paying near £10million (thats the price being mentioned in the papers) for a player who wouldn’t be a significant improvement for some years seems a bit of a waste.
Similar to my last post, another inevitable has happened this week. It’s made headlines both sides of the atlantic, and maybe I’m a little late on discussing it, but David Beckham is transfering from football to soccer. Beckham’s stateside move has long been expected, but the money and figures being mentioned are monumental.
£128 million is the contract Beckham has signed for his five year spell in LA. That’s just over £25 million a year, which is £500,000 a week. Shit. The biggest wage in football history by quite some distance. A lot of fuss has been kicked up in recent years about the morals of players who’ve held out for wages around the £100,00 a week, but Beckham has dwarved those figures. It really is an incredible figure - not just for Beckham, but the statement behind it is that LA Galaxy and the MLS are deadly serious about putting soccer on the map.
It’s hard to believe that LA Galaxy, a club whos other major players don’t earn anywhere near as much as the worst players in England’s Premiership, can afford to pay such a sum. In a radio interview some of the biggest players for LA said they didn’t even see weekly wages in the thousands, which suggests to me that there’s a lot of outside parties involved in bringing Beckham to America, rather than just the LA team itself.
The large sum could seeminly pay itself off fairly quickly. Real Madrid recuperated the £15 million it took to pry Beckham away from Manchester in a matter of weeks. With sensible marketing (televising his medical, shirt sales, etc.) Beckham’s transfer effectively paid for itself. I can’t see LA making the £128 million back in a week, but I’m almost sure that Beckham’s introduction to the MLS will definitely pay off the £25 million a year with no problems at all. LA Galaxy will have all sorts of television deals lined up - here in England, Europe, Asia and no doubt more. When you think about Beckham’s huge media presence, this could be the move that can help elevate MLS and football in the states.
Its been tried before, with Pele and Beckenbauer at New York, but there is such hype about Beckham that maybe, just maybe, football can start to get taken seriously in America. Maybe Pele and Beckenbauer were too early, but with the World Cup and the success of the US team in recent years maybe now is the right time for their league to have a footballing icon. If any player is ever going to break America, it will be Beckham.
Lets face it, there’s nothing left for him in Europe… spending most of this year on the bench at Real Madrid he is losing the shine of a ‘galactico’ and being dropped from the England squad the debate about whether Beckham still has much to offer seems very one-sided. Public opinion seems to be that he’s past his best, and Capello clearly thought that by giving him very limited playing time at the Bernabeu this season.
Having seen so much of Beckham during his years at Manchester United, it seems pretty obvious to me that he’s always wanted to be an icon in America. From his token appearances at MTV Movie Awards to his cameos in films like Goal. The media love writing about Beckham, and Beckham seems to love being their subject. And where better to land both Posh and Becks than Los Angelos? The two of them have been living a Hollywood life style for nearly 10 years now.
I hope he succeeds in America, and I hope that this massive move attracts more players to the American league. I read somewhere that soccer is the most played sport in the U.S. for people aged 12-20, and I can’t work out for the life of me why the love of the sport doesn’t continue after that. I don’t like how they’ve americanised the sport, but I would like to see the standard in America rise significantly. With stronger teams and a stronger division the sport will automatically become more and more prominent in the states. Lets just hope the media frenzy can attract fans, money and players to the MLS - otherwise LA are just paying a lot of money for a player well past his best.
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