Football Fan Hypocrisy

August 22, 2009 5 Comments

Having reviewed my recent posts on football I’ve made the following observations:

14th August – Season’s Greeting – I moan about how apathetic I’m feeling towards the new football season, and have a general sense of dread about Liverpool’s chances (certainly implicit when I was writing it, even if it’s not actually stated).

15th August – Piss Poor Punditry – I’m so incensed by pundits writing off Liverpool’s chances of winning the league that I write an impromptu rant in which I basically call them morons.

16th August – Spurs 2 Liverpool 1 – A match report describing a very poor Liverpool performance, and how depressed it made me feel.  I single out Glenn Hoddle and Jamie Redknapp for ridicule, for saying that Spurs have better players on the bench than Liverpool do.

I can’t help but feel that I’m at least a slight hypocrite, but as a football fan, I think you have to be.  Football is very much a tribal thing; you’re allowed to criticise your team, but nobody else is.  However, I do always try and maintain as much objectivity as I can when talking about football; I think you just end up sounding like an idiot if you don’t.  This post is my attempt to acknowledge that I may not have been entirely successful in my task.

So, having thought about it, how do I actually feel about Liverpool’s chances in the league this season?  The simple answer is, I’m not sure.  Football is almost impossible to predict, because, incredibly, the team with the strongest 11 players don’t always win every match.  As much as pundits wind me up with their monochrome soundbites, I do feel a bit sorry for them.  They are asked to give absolute opinions on topics that don’t have definitive answers.

Despite having pretty much the same squad that finished second, and played so well, last season, I can’t help but agree with many pundits and say that the squad seems a bit weak.  I just don’t quite understand why I think that.

To quote a great man: ‘Football’s a funny old game, Saint.’

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Come Dine With Me at Breakfast

August 21, 2009 4 Comments

Thanks to a combination of Channel 4′s afternoon repeats and the magic of Sky Plus, I’ve started watching Come Dine With Me,every day, while I eat my breakfast. It’s worryingly addictive.

For anyone who has been living under a rock, the format is simple: four (or five) contestants take turns hosting dinner parties and they mark each other out of ten. At the end of the week, the winner takes home £1000.

It seems the perfect reality TV format: cookery mixed with people trying their best to impress. It also manages to avoid the twin pitfalls of this kind of show; annoying wannabes and clueless idiots being exploited. It gives the contestants just enough rope to hang themselves, should they choose to do so. It’s topped off by a sarcastic, mocking commentary by Dave Lamb, that, shockingly for a day time show, is actually funny.

Channel 4 must know that they’re on to a good thing as it is repeated ad infinitum (and they show it on More4 too). I think it will soon be rivaling Friends as the channel’s most repeated programme.

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Possibly Related Posts

August 20, 2009 Leave a comment

One of the interesting things about a WordPress blog are the automatically generated ‘Possibly Related Posts’.  At the bottom of every post are system-generated links to other blog posts that WordPress think are related to it.  It seems to generate mixed results, sometimes the connection pretty obvious, sometimes it leaves you head scratching.  Sometimes it doesn’t appear at all, but, when it does, it’s always interesting.  So, this has inspired me to take a look at some of the possibly related posts on both my blogs, this one and The World Of Sherby57, and see what is what.  The posts I’ve chosen to look at were picked at random.

1. Blog: PSGOM

Post: Season’s Greeting

Topic:  My apathy towards the new football season, Liverpool’s pre-season, and the title contenders.

Links:

Howard Gets His Feet Wet from Sactown Original Raider Boosters – A look at NFL’s pre-season, a totally different type of football but I can see why it is linked.

Two from Word of Ashi is not here, and yet – It’s a Japanese-style poem, and is about as far removed from football-related whinging as you can get.  It contains the word ‘season’ though, so WordPress has leapt to conclusions.

“Pump it up, Pump it up”…and the right of our community from Blackinformant.com – A post about how Hip-Hop artists mention only non-black brands in their music.  Interesting, but I’m baffled how it can even be possibly related.

Lions Try to Win Back Disgruntled Season Ticketholders from Fanhouse – Another NFL piece! The Detroit Lions have been trying to win back former season ticketholders by inviting 6000 of them to the team’s training camp (I don’t think all 6000 turned up!).  I wonder if any Premier League teams would do similar scheme in order to boost ticket sales? Sadly, it’s not an issue at Liverpool – 10 years on the waiting list and counting.

2. Blog: Sherby57

Post: Stunner\Dog Mystery Finally Solved

Topic: I congratulate Dr. Angel for solving a brainteaser I set a couple of years ago.  The puzzle came back on the radar as it was mentioned in The Sherby57 Project.

Links:

TS57P – Games, Puzzle and Lies from Sherby57 –  This is definitely a related post! This is the post that rekindled interest in the puzzle.

Post From The Past – July 2007 from Sherby57 – It’s another one of my posts, but not directly linked this time. Post From The Past is my shameless monthly feature in which I dredge up posts from the previous year.  Other than it being by me, I’m struggling to see the connection, but if you want to have a taste of the early days of Sherby57, take a look.

The Sherby57 Project from Sherby57 – Me again.  This is an explanation of what the Sherby57 Project is and what it sets out to achieve (it may, or may not, be serious).  It makes sense as a link because it is mentioned in the post.  I would guess that I generate so many links to my own blogs because I’m the only person that would talk about these topics on the whole of WordPress.

What the heck is this? from TV Squad – How aptly named, because what the heck is this? A link that’s not on Sherby57?? The post is a photo of a building called ‘The Wellington’, that is apparently significant to a TV show, and the reader is asked to guess which show and why it is significant.  I had no idea myself, but it’s where Fox Mulder’s apartment was in The X-Files. You learn something new every day.

3. Blog: PSGOM

Post: Bit Of A Twit

Topic: I announce that I’ve joined Twitter, and that I had reservations doing so.

Links:

RCMP’s pink slip from PinkSlipPerks’s Blog – I don’t really know what this is about.. the post is only a line long.  I believe that being ‘pink-slipped’ is the US equivalent of getting your P45, and this is a blog for people who have been pink-slipped. How it relates to my post is anybody’s guess.

A Summer Spell from ‘no longer exists’ – This post no longer exists and the link redirects to a placeholder.  I will be forever intrigued as to what A Summer Spell was about.

Don’t be jealous of my shirt! from Terri Terri Quite Contrary – “Sorry, the page you are looking for does not exist”, however the blog does still exist. Just how contrary was the tale of shirt jealousy? Inquiring minds need to know.

Facebook adds verification procedure for compromised accounts from DownloadSquad – It’s not related to my post but since I’m permanently suspicious of Facebook, then it’s good to know they are increasing their security measures.

4. Blog: Sherby57

Post: Where Is Mindy?

Topic: I wonder why my friend, Mindy Ruson, has never updated her blog on style.

Links:

Mindy Ruson’s Style Emporium from Sherby57 – In an ideal world I wouldn’t have chosen this post, as there is only one link (and that is back to one of my blogs).  The reason I did choose it is because I couldn’t find any other posts that had PRP’s, they had all mysteriously dried up. Which they sometimes do.  Incidentally, Mindy has still not updated her blog. Come on Mindy.

Well that’s it.  I had originally intended to cover the links from 10 different posts, but then this ended up being far longer than I anticipated.  So, what have I learned from the exercise? Well, sometimes the links make sense and sometimes they don’t; which is what I said at the start of the post.  Despite not learning anything new, it was still an interesting poke around the world of WordPress.

I can only imagine that I’ll be doing this again pretty soon.

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Liverpool 4 Stoke City 0

August 19, 2009 2 Comments

Well, I can finally breathe again, and Liverpool’s season has officially started.

If I was ‘a little nervy’ before the Spurs match then I was an absolute nervous wreck before this one; I’d even been dreaming about it for the last couple of night (and having a hissy fit mid-dream when Liverpool lost).  Any remnants of football related apathy have certainly disappeared.

Beforehand, the match seemed to be the epitome of a ‘must-win game’, which is absolutely ridiculous for the second game of the season.  It was almost as though I could feel myself drifting in to the realm of hysterical Sky Sports style hyperbole.  Luckily it turned out to be a comfortable victory for the Reds, and my nerves have been restored to their usual placid state.

I won’t be able to give you as detailed a match report as last time, as I watched the game on an internet stream.  It was good enough to just about follow the action, but it hardly compares to glorious Sky HD, and it’s not easy to describe what happened when you can’t always tell who is who.

The game was pretty much wrapped up by two goals in the first half, with an early strike from Torres after 4 minutes (which clearly settled the nerves), and a nice bicycle kick from Glen Johnson just before the break.  Stoke had their moments in the first period, and had a good variety of set plays which looked dangerous.  They also have the not-so-secret weapon of Rory Delap’s long throws; they’re boring to watch but they’re unbelievably effective.  You can’t blame Stoke for using it at every oppotunity, and it’s fair to say that Liverpool needed the second goal.

The Reds played much better in the second half, and limited the number of set pieces for the opposition.  It took until the 78th minute though for the lead to be increased, with Kuyt slotting home after a great bit of build up and an exquisite turn and cross from Gerrard.  The game was sealed by a simple Ngog header (from all of 3 inches out) after yet more good work from Johnson.  All in all a good night’s work.

Unlike the last match there are lots of positives to take from the game.  We kept a clean sheet whilst giving a first start to 18-year old Daniel Ayala, who didn’t look totally out of place in the centre of defence.  There was an impressive display by Lucas in the middle of the park and hopefully people will start to get a bit more behind him as he grows in to the role.  Insua had another good game and is a lively runner, even if he isn’t the finished article just yet.  A goal for Ngog gets him off the mark early doors, and can do his confidence no harm.  And maybe most of all was the great attacking impact of Glen Johnson, with a goal and an assist, and the blossoming of an exciting partnership with Kuyt on the right.  Like I said, it was a good night’s work.

Any result is made sweeter when your rivals lose, and tonight had the lovely bonus of Manchester United losing to Burnley (yes, Burnley);  it’s good when you’re not the only team to have lost early on.  I wonder if the papers will write them off so quickly.  I somehow doubt it.

If I’ve missed out anything obvious, blame that internet stream (although you can’t complain for free).

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Gone West (Wing)

August 18, 2009 14 Comments

This week saw the end of a Sunday morning tradition for me; watching the previous night’s episode of The West Wing on Sky Plus.  Yes, after 7 seasons and 156 episodes, I’ve finally reached the end, as More4 screened the final ever episode, ‘Tomorrow’.  Now look, I’m totally aware that The West Wing actually ended over 3 years ago, but it was the end for me, so I feel entitled to comment on it.  Having missed the show the first time around, More4′s weekly repeats were a godsend.

I tweeted to this effect on Sunday, whilst thinking that I’d be the only one watching .  A subsequent search of Twitter proved me very wrong; there were lots of people who had just watched the final episode, and even more people who were dedicating their Sunday to watching TWW on DVD.  My fellow West Wing latecomers have proved that there is still enough interest in the show to post about it. So I am.

What conclusions do I have to draw about 7 seasons of one of the most highly-acclaimed dramas in TV history? Well, it’s not quite that straightforward; after watching something for 150 straight weeks, it induces, what I like to call, ‘The Soap Effect’.

The first time I encountered ‘The Soap Effect’ was in the mid-nineties, and my late teens, as Sky One started to show the whole of Star Trek: The Next Generation, every week night, seemingly forever. I started to watch as it seemed a slightly higher-quality alternative to the rest of tea-time telly.  Before I knew it, I was hooked, and had to see every episode – it’s like really getting in to Neighbours, but with much higher production values (and in space).

The thing is, almost immediately after watching my final episode of The Next Generation, I came to absolutely hate it. I wouldn’t watch a repeat episode if you paid me; I can’t stand the sight of the smug, sanctimonious twats in their stupid pyjamas.  My sudden change of heart may seem like the behaviour of a mental case, but its just the result of ‘The Soap Effect’ wearing off.  There’s a reason that seemingly intelligent people watch soap operas, it’s because they draw you in, and play to your basest human need for a cliffhanger.  People don’t watch soaps because they actually think they’re good (well not everybody).  Needless to say, my brother has never let me forget that I wanted Sky One to show Star Trek episodes rather than Diff’rent Strokes. It’s a shame I’ll never live down.

So back to The West Wing, and how does that apply? Well, I certainly don’t hate it, and I don’t hate their stupid pyjamas (but then again, they didn’t wear them, although you can’t be too sure what Toby was wearing after he got the sack).  I do get the slight feeling, however, that part of the reason I liked it so much was due to the long-running commitment rather than genuine love for it.

The reason that I think this is that I can vaguely remember being REALLY annoyed by the show back in Season 1, and I can’t remember when they feeling went away or why.  I’m sure that at the time I had a huge list of reasoned arguments about why the show wasn’t as great as was purported, but now they’re just a distant memory (other than Mandy being the most annoying character on TV, luckily she didn’t last long).  It’s really annoying that I can’t remember my reasons, and I wish I had made notes at the time to see if my criticisms still held water, but I didn’t, and so I can’t.  The nearest thing is to compare it to Aaron Sorkin’s subsequent show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which I thought was deeply flawed, for a myriad of reasons, whilst being very similar to TWW.  Studio 60 only lasted for one season before cancellation, and many people thought this was a disgrace, but I could fully understand why.

Anyway, enough with the negative, I must have liked the show well enough, or I wouldn’t be writing such a long post about it.  Here are some of my ‘highlights’ of The West Wing:

  • Being so enamoured with President Bartlet that it convinces you that if Martin Sheen ever ran for President for real he would win.
  • I have huge respect for a show that could maintain an unspoken sexual chemistry between Josh and Donna for so long, and only pay off at the end of Season 7.  Most shows can’t go 6 episodes before the will-they-won’t-they plot becomes so annoying that you want to put your foot through the screen.
  • CJ’s transition in to Chief of Staff was gripping TV, even though it was sadly due to John Spencer’s ill-health.
  • Allison Janney’s all round portrayal of CJ Cregg was amazing, creating a totally believable character, and the only one of the staff that you’d want to be stuck in a lift with.
  • Shifting the focus of Season 7 to the presidential campaign was a risky but inspired change of direction.  Stalwart characters were sidelined, and Toby virtually disappeared, but you didn’t seem to mind.
  • Finally, the perfect length for a TV show, running the entire length of President Bartlet’s two terms in office.  Unlike most shows, it had a natural shelf-life, and had the good sense to stick to it.

Many people see The West Wing as the best drama to ever appear on TV, and while I wouldn’t agree, it was certainly an enjoyable part of my Sunday morning and it will be missed…..hmmm I wonder what More4 are showing next Saturday night.

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Chuck 3-D

August 17, 2009 1 Comment

As I opened my mail this morning, I was pleased to see a special treat: free Chuck 3-D glasses. I say special, but they are just a bit of cardboard with some coloured plastic over the eyes. Still, they were free and how often can you say that these days? Thanks to Virgin 1.

I’m quite excited to watch the 3-D episode of Chuck (25th August, Virgin 1, 9pm), mainly to see if it actually works. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything in 3-D before. I’ve led a sheltered life, I know. I’ll report back what it was like.  It does seem like something of a risky move to have a 3-D episode; you might attract curious new viewers, but you might alientate existing viewers who didn’t realise they had to get the glasses.

You can get your own set of Chuck 3-D glasses by buying the 18th August edition of TV & Satellite Week.

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Spurs 2 Liverpool 1

August 16, 2009 2 Comments

Well, Liverpool start the league campaign with a loss, and I have a horrible gnawing sensation in my stomach: Welcome back football.  I have a long standing belief that there is no enjoyment in football, and that even the highest highs never quite outweigh the regular lows.  But maybe that’s just me.

I was a little nervy before the match, we’ve not always done as well against Spurs as we should have, and there was the added pressure of the rest of the ‘big four’ winning over the weekend.  With Carragher, Skrtel and Gerrard passed fit, the team looked as you would expect, perhaps apart from the inclusion of Ryan Babel ahead of Benayoun and Riera.

The opening period of the first half was extremely scrappy, largely due to Skrtel and Carragher attempting to undo all the medical staff’s hard work and wiping each other out of the game.  The central defenders had a nasty clash of heads, on 16 minutes, and it took them both a long time (and 12 staples in Carragher’s head) to settle down afterwards.  Skrtel in particular struggled to shake it off, and was forced to take painkillers.

Liverpool’s play remained disjointed for the rest of the half, but Spurs seem to grow in to the game.  On 30 minutes, Robbie Keane missed a golden chance to go ahead, as Reina made an impressive save from close range.  He then made another great save from Keane, just a few minutes later, with Defoe immediately spurning another chance, flashing a header wide.  41 minutes in, Keane blazes another good chance high over the bar.  Despite the Tottenham chances, I still felt fairly comfortable, until, after 44 minutes, Benoit Assou-Ekotto scored with a great strike from the edge of the box.  To be fair, the shot was pretty much unsavable, and there wasn’t a lot that the defence could do.  Liverpool upped the tempo for the few minutes until half time, but it finished 1-0 at the break.  A frustrating half of football, made worse by listening to Glenn Hoddle and Jamie Redknapp saying how much better Tottenham’s squad is than Liverpool’s.  It’s not like Sky Sports’ pundits to jump to conclusions after 45 minutes of football, is it?

The second half started pretty much the same as the first ended, until on 54 minutes, Glen Johnson was brought down in the box by the goalie, following a brilliant attacking run.  Steven Gerrard slotted the resulting penalty away to make it 1-1.

On 58 minutes, done for pace by Defoe, Jamie Carragher brought him down with a clumsy tackle.  From the resulting free kick, Spurs’ new boy Sebastien Bassong scores with a header, 2-1.  I won’t mention the dodgy technicality that meant that Bassong only served one match of a two match ban, and meant that he was available for this game.

67 minutes, and Yossi Benayoun replaced Ryan Babel; Benayoun was one of Liverpool’s star performers towards the end of last season, so it looked to be a positive move.  Babel did little to justify Benitez’s faith in starting him, but I wouldn’t hold it against him, as the whole team were struggling.  Skrtel was finally replaced on 74 minutes, by Premier League debutant Daniel Ayala.  No pressure then for his first game!  Liverpool’s final throw of the dice came on 78 minutes when Andriy Voronin replaced the usually untouchable Dirk Kuyt.

The substitutions made something of a positive impact and Voronin was unlucky not to earn a penalty on 85 minutes.   Sammy Lee got a red card on 89 minutes, for complaining about the ungiven penalty, and it pretty much summed up the frustration of the whole game.  Despite a slight improvement, Liverpool never really got going, and Spurs were definitely the worthy winners.  The match finished 2-1.

I’m not sure that I can take any positives from the game, and I have tried.  About the best I can come up with is that the media will have now already written us off for the title race, and at least that’s a bit less pressure to deal with.  Small comfort.  As much as I struggle to defend today’s performace, I do hope that any media reports on the match highlight the massive impact that the clash of heads had on Liverpool; it totally disprupted the team.

I had written, in my season preview Season’s Greeting, that I was feeling apathetic to the football season.  Sadly, I can report that it is now longer the case; I really wish I didn’t care right now.

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Piss Poor Punditry

August 15, 2009 1 Comment

Yesterday I wrote a post describing my apathy towards the impending football season (Season’s Greeting), and was beginning to wonder if anything could re-light my fire (so to speak).  Later that day, I found my spark.

As I was driving to my mate’s house last night, I listened to a Premier League preview on Five Live, featuring Pat Nevin and Perry Groves.  They were talking about Spurs when I tuned in, and my ears pricked up when I heard them start to discuss the chances of Liverpool winning the league.  Within a few minutes I was swearing at the radio and trying desperately not to crash, as I attempted to control my rage.

I’ll attempt to convey to you some of the drivel that they were coming out with.  I apologise now if I misrepresent anything that was said, as I am trying to remember it from last night and was annoyed by everything they said (I might well be biased).  I am also not sure which of the pundits said what, so I can’t help you decide which of them is worse.  Here we go:

Benitez has made a massive mistake in selling Alonso.

I can understand the argument that selling Alonso has weakened the Liverpool team, but can the blame for this really be assigned to a Benitez mistake?  Rafa made no secret of his desire to keep Xabi at the club, and insisted on Real Madrid stumping up a massive transfer fee before he’d even speak to them.  Alonso himself made no secret of his desire to move, even (allegedly) putting in a transfer request.   Can you really keep a 27-year old player who doesn’t want to stay, when you have a chance to get a huge fee for him, a fee that you’ll never get again? I can only say that you can’t.

Liverpool are TOTALLY reliant on Gerrard and Torres. If either of them get injured then Liverpool are stuffed.

Like every team in world football, if you lose your two best players, then you won’t be as good.  That’s not exactly rocket science, is it?  But did they bother to check how many times that Stevie and Nando played together last season? I’m guessing not, since the answer is 14 games.  So Liverpool had one of those two players injured for nearly two-thirds of last season and finished second.  I think someone should reconsider their comments.

Numbers 1 to 11, Liverpool are good.  The rest of the squad are hopeless.

It could well be argued that there are weak spots in Liverpool’s squad and that some of the fringe players don’t offer too much.  But are there only 11 good players at Liverpool?  People from opposing clubs debate who is a good player, and who isn’t, almost endlessly on football forums.  The definition of who is a quality player is so subjective as to be almost meaningless.  The only measure that I can think to use is to list players who Rafa will regularly start as part of his rotation system.  The players who I think fit this description are: Johnson, Aquilani, Agger, Gerrard, Torres, Riera, Aurelio, Benayoun, Kuyt, Mascherano, Lucas, Insua, Carragher, Reina, Skrtel.  Now, I don’t expect you to think that all of those players are ‘world-class’ (they’re not), but they did all regularly start for the team that came second in the league… and there are 15 of them.  Outside of those 15, we have a decent backup goalie in Cavalieri, two full internationals in Babel and Dossena, and Ngog, a 20 year old striker with only one season in a new country, who still managed to score 3 goals in a smattering of appearances.  Now, I’d never try and argue that the ‘second 11′ is anywhere near good enough, but they’re not as bad as the black&white merchants would make out.

Aquilani won’t work at Liverpool because he’ll run in to the same space that Gerrard does.

This comment is almost too stupid to comment on.  Yes, Liverpool will have to adapt to Aquilani’s style of play in contrast to Alonso’s.  The key word is ADAPT.  Morons.

Anyway, that concludes my rant.  In the cold light of day, perhaps the comments they were making weren’t as stupid as I am portraying.  It can be very difficult to see what is actually true as a football fan, as you are intrinsically biased.  I do think, however, that these examples do illustrate the one-dimensional thinking that plagues 99% of football pundits working in the media today.  They simply don’t deal in facts, but get an idea based on a gut feeling, and spin it out in to a fully fledged theory, which is stated as fact.  In last night’s programme, the fact that Ngog and El Zhar aren’t established, prolific strikers lead to the conclusion that Liverpool only have 11 decent players.  The lesson that the broadcasters need to learn is that being an ex-player, and not being brain dead, doesn’t  make you a good pundit.

Looking on the positive side though, the anger roused in me last night has got me all fired up for tomorrow’s match. Come on you Reds!

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Season’s Greeting

August 14, 2009 4 Comments

Well, the new football season is finally upon us, and I’m currently filled with apathy towards it.   I last wrote about football on the 17th May, following Liverpool’s 2-0 win over West Brom and then promptly disappeared.  Apparently we also beat Spurs 3-1 on the final day of the season, but I clearly couldn’t be bothered writing about it.   I had also intended to do a kind of season review, but, with it all over, my enthusiasm evaporated and I busied myself with other things.

Usually, it takes only a few weeks without football before I’m getting excited about the new season, but for some reason this year is different.  I caught only about the last 5 minutes of the Community Shield last Sunday, but it felt like I had stumbled across a repressed memory, and had a horrible lurching feeling in my stomach as I remembered just how bad Sky Sports punditry has become.   The whole idea that football existed at all seemed strange, as if it was something that had existed in a parallel universe and we were viewing the match through a magical portal.  It was quite weird.

So, what has actually happened LFC-wise this pre-season?  The big story, of course, was the continual Xabi Alonso will-he-won’t-he (yes he will) saga.  This story has dominated Liverpool’s media coverage both before, and after, his inevitable transfer to Real Madrid.  The press has obviously painted this as an absolute disaster for the Reds’ season, but is it really?  Well, to an extent, we can only wait and see on this, but my feeling is that, despite him being a top player, he won’t be as irreplaceable as the newspapers would like us to think.  I also hope it will give Lucas his chance to shine and shut all his doubters up (I remain convinced that sooner or later, he’s going to be a top player – I just hope it is for us!).

In terms of getting new players in, it’s been an odd pre-season, not just for Liverpool, but also for the rest of the ‘big four’.  We have signed Glen Johnson (but sold first choice right back Arbeloa), and Alberto Aquilani, as a direct consequence of losing Alonso.  It’s natural for fans to want to make as many signings as possible, especially when you want to kick on from the previous season.  Johnson should be a good buy, and provide a bit more of a cutting edge, but Arbeloa was always a consistent performer.  The only other first-team signing is Aquilani, and he’s injured for two months.

This would be more worrying if the other clubs had been spending big, but they haven’t (other than Man City!).   Manchester United, in particular, have made very modest signings, in a summer which saw them lose Ronaldo and Tevez.  There’s still time for them to make a huge signing, but I suspect that Alex Ferguson wants to win the league this year having spent less money than Liverpool – just so he can say ‘I told you so’.

So, who am I tipping to win the league this season?  Well, if I was paid to sell newspapers or boost ratings, then I’d give you some confident bullshit on who WILL win it.  Since I’m independent, I’ll choose to sit on the fence.  I don’t think it is clear at all given such a strange summer, and there are several contenders:

Liverpool – Despite the slight sense of pessimism conveyed in this article, we’ve still got a strong squad, and have kept most of it together.  Assuming that we get over the myriad of injury problems we’ve got at the moment, we’re in with a shout.  We have been written off by some pundits because we’ve lost Alonso – but how many of these same pundits would have called him our best player before he left?

Manchester United – Probably favourites, mainly because they won it last year.  The impact of losing Ronaldo and Tevez is yet to be seen.

Chelsea – Seen by many pundits as being the favourites, seemingly because they have a new manager.   They’ve still got a strong squad, but it’s aging rapidly.

Arsenal – Pretty much written off by the press, but still have a constant ability to produce players.  Despite losing two of their big players to Man City, this could be the season when their ‘youngsters’ finally click.

Man City – They may, or may not, be consistent, but giving the amount of attacking talent they have on offer, they’ll give plenty of teams problems.

Tottenham Hotspur – The oddest team in the league; they change manager every season and are linked to, and buy, every player in the world (I’m expecting to be signed by them any minute – it must be my turn).  Unlikely winners, but on the law of averages, they must turn good eventually, even if it’s by chance.

Everton – Again, they are unlikely to win the league, but I include them with the top teams because David Moyes has improved them year on year.

Aston Villa – Well, I’m really stretching it now, but if I’m including Everton and Spurs, then I’ll have to include Villa.

And, that’s about all I have to say! I did start writing this yesterday, and this morning, while reading a match preview, I got my first pang of excitement.  In all likelihood, I’ll be drawn right back in after watching the match on Sunday.  I’ll let you know!

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MBM – Lonely Milk

August 11, 2009 Leave a comment

MBM Lonely Milk

Sometimes it makes me feel a bit down inside to think about a lonely bottle of milk, sat in a cold, dark fridge.  Please open the door, from time to time, and let me feel the warm sunlight on my plastic skin.

This post was sponsored by the Milk Bottle Manifesto.

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