If you like celebrity gossip then Popbitch is yer man.
The latest on Girls Aloud, the size of Posh Spice's waist and Jennifer Aniston's latest fella are all discussed at length with updates every day on the latest gossip. It's the Internet at its best.
It will have occasional references to Ashley Cole but never along the lines of "Yes he is back to his Arsenal form now", more along the lines of .......well you know yourself.
So if you are a football fan in search of transfer gossip then what are you to do.
Well there is a steady stream of stories in the press, nicely condensed on pages like The Guardian's Rumour Mill http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/series/rumourmill and if you are old school there is always Ceefax page 338.
But the king is the http://www.football-rumours.com/ . Two minutes on this site will give you a dizzying array of new topics to discuss down the pub.
A quick glance today tells us that Robbie Keane is off to Liverpool, David O'Leary is set to take the hot seat at Celtic and Damien Duff will be leaving Newcastle, and that is just the stories with an Irish angle.
Every conceivable permutation of transfer is listed here and the best thing is the source. The rumours are posted by the public so they usually start with "My dad's best mate's sister is the secretary for the head of communications at Anfield and she has seen Rafa's secret transfer target list....."
They then proceed to list 40 players that Liverpool are going to buy in the summer.
However they may be as accurate as anybody else. The first big transfer of the summer took place yesterday. The young Croatian midfielder Luka Modric joined Spurs yesterday for 15.8 Million sterling from Dinamo Zagreb yet Saturday morning's press was full of stories of Modric joining Newcastle.
At least the Modric story was done and dusted in about 24 hours. Over the last few summers we have had transfer sagas that have taken longer to conclude than it takes the Democrats to pick a presidential candidate.
I am sure we all fondly recall the Michael Essien-Chelsea move of 2005, the Carlos Tevez saga of 2007 and the year long move of Henry to Barcelona.
So what will be the move of 2008? Keep an eye on Lampard to Barcelona, Drogba to Inter and Gareth Barry to Liverpool.
It will keep you busy until the next time Nicole Kidman has a baby.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
A little bit of outsider knowledge
There is a new phenomenon in coaching that we should all be aware of.
It is the increasing trend of experts from other sports offering insight or actually taking over coaching in sports other than their own.
Now we don't mean Clive Woodward and his ill fated spell with Southampton. His role as "Special Technical Advisor" consisted of Southampton playing even worse than before he arrived.
Sir Clive now seems the exception rather than the rule though, as inter discipline coaching is proving fruitful for a vast range of sports.
Rugby Union has long been indebted to its long lost son Rugby League. The defensive strategy of all teams is now controlled by ex-Rugby League players and Shaun Edwards, ex Rugby League legend and advisor to this years Grand Slam winning Welsh team is the most sought after coach in Rugby Union right now.
Rugby League in Australia has recently come under fire for hiring wrestling coaches to advise how best to tackle opposition players. A move called the chicken wing, where the arm is twisted behind the back, is the hot topic down under at the moment. The move comes from wrestling and a "grapple tackle", a choke hold style move, has been causing controversy for over a year now. Both are designed to cause maximum discomfort, in the hope of the opponent dropping the ball. The Melbourne Storm are the masters of the grapple tackle, check out this link to see the move in all its grisly glory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSu-uOiUz7E
Kerry manager Pat O'Shea spoke last week about his use of basketball techniques with his Kerry team and now football is about to be influenced by baseball.
Moneyball, the sports book beloved of people who want to the next Bill Gates, is about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its coach Billy Beane.
The book is about how Beane used limited resources and clever use of playing statistics to drag his team into the top level of the game.
Beane is now part of a group that has purchased the San Jose Earthquakes, one of the Major League Soccer franchises. He plans to use a similar set of processes to identify players for soccer teams. While Prozone and Opta are widely used Beane has devised a system called Sabermetrics, to measure such things as touches of the ball in situations where there is a shot on goal, the number of interceptions and something called "defensive effectiveness".
We will watch the progress of the Earthquakes with interest (OK some interest) but I wonder what other sports stars are secretly employing coaches from other sports.
I suspect Dimitar Berbatov has had some gymnastics coaching, Henry Shefflin has surely taken a ballet class or two and if Ciaran Whelan is not in training for a crack at Joe Calzaghe then he should be.
It is the increasing trend of experts from other sports offering insight or actually taking over coaching in sports other than their own.
Now we don't mean Clive Woodward and his ill fated spell with Southampton. His role as "Special Technical Advisor" consisted of Southampton playing even worse than before he arrived.
Sir Clive now seems the exception rather than the rule though, as inter discipline coaching is proving fruitful for a vast range of sports.
Rugby Union has long been indebted to its long lost son Rugby League. The defensive strategy of all teams is now controlled by ex-Rugby League players and Shaun Edwards, ex Rugby League legend and advisor to this years Grand Slam winning Welsh team is the most sought after coach in Rugby Union right now.
Rugby League in Australia has recently come under fire for hiring wrestling coaches to advise how best to tackle opposition players. A move called the chicken wing, where the arm is twisted behind the back, is the hot topic down under at the moment. The move comes from wrestling and a "grapple tackle", a choke hold style move, has been causing controversy for over a year now. Both are designed to cause maximum discomfort, in the hope of the opponent dropping the ball. The Melbourne Storm are the masters of the grapple tackle, check out this link to see the move in all its grisly glory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSu-uOiUz7E
Kerry manager Pat O'Shea spoke last week about his use of basketball techniques with his Kerry team and now football is about to be influenced by baseball.
Moneyball, the sports book beloved of people who want to the next Bill Gates, is about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its coach Billy Beane.
The book is about how Beane used limited resources and clever use of playing statistics to drag his team into the top level of the game.
Beane is now part of a group that has purchased the San Jose Earthquakes, one of the Major League Soccer franchises. He plans to use a similar set of processes to identify players for soccer teams. While Prozone and Opta are widely used Beane has devised a system called Sabermetrics, to measure such things as touches of the ball in situations where there is a shot on goal, the number of interceptions and something called "defensive effectiveness".
We will watch the progress of the Earthquakes with interest (OK some interest) but I wonder what other sports stars are secretly employing coaches from other sports.
I suspect Dimitar Berbatov has had some gymnastics coaching, Henry Shefflin has surely taken a ballet class or two and if Ciaran Whelan is not in training for a crack at Joe Calzaghe then he should be.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Grant aid
Am I the only person who feels that Avram Grant is a little bit unlucky and does not deserve the grief he is getting this week?
Ok he is a little dour and wears black a lot. So what. Ferguson is a miserable bastard too and Wenger is hardly a ray of sunshine recently and you don't see them getting picked on to the same extent about their personality.
I don't believe he was involved in "knifing" Mourinho, and he has done a very good job with Chelsea this season.
In previous seasons Jose would moan about losing the spine of the team, be it Terry or Lampard or Cech or Drogba and blame this for defeats. At various stages this season all of these players have missed large parts of the year, often at the same time, and they kept winning.
His one big purchase, Anelka, has been a success and despite poor form in the domestic cup competitions he has done very well in the two big competitions, Champions League and Premier League.
The league may be gone for them now but Champions League is still a possibility, Jose never got them to a final, Grant might.
But even if he won the British Open, Wimbledon and the Rose of Tralee he will not keep his job.
Chelsea are the sort of club now to have a big name manager. Rijkaard may be available, as will Mancini and possibly Ancelotti too.
Poor old Avram can't compete with these guys so will be moved back upstairs next season.
Man City are rumoured to be thinking of ditching Sven after the poor second half to the season his team has had. With agents closely connected to Sven and Abramovich appearing in the papers recently don't be surprised to see the Swedish love machine in control at the Bridge next year.
And Sven loves spending money....a marriage made in agent heaven.
Ok he is a little dour and wears black a lot. So what. Ferguson is a miserable bastard too and Wenger is hardly a ray of sunshine recently and you don't see them getting picked on to the same extent about their personality.
I don't believe he was involved in "knifing" Mourinho, and he has done a very good job with Chelsea this season.
In previous seasons Jose would moan about losing the spine of the team, be it Terry or Lampard or Cech or Drogba and blame this for defeats. At various stages this season all of these players have missed large parts of the year, often at the same time, and they kept winning.
His one big purchase, Anelka, has been a success and despite poor form in the domestic cup competitions he has done very well in the two big competitions, Champions League and Premier League.
The league may be gone for them now but Champions League is still a possibility, Jose never got them to a final, Grant might.
But even if he won the British Open, Wimbledon and the Rose of Tralee he will not keep his job.
Chelsea are the sort of club now to have a big name manager. Rijkaard may be available, as will Mancini and possibly Ancelotti too.
Poor old Avram can't compete with these guys so will be moved back upstairs next season.
Man City are rumoured to be thinking of ditching Sven after the poor second half to the season his team has had. With agents closely connected to Sven and Abramovich appearing in the papers recently don't be surprised to see the Swedish love machine in control at the Bridge next year.
And Sven loves spending money....a marriage made in agent heaven.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Big weekend of sport, not big on excitement
So did you watch it all?
This weekend the more committed sports fans was looking forward to endless entertainment on the box and personally I was more excited than Max Mosley on a day trip to Nuremburg.
However, despite watching something like 30 hours of sport from Thursday night I found it hard to enjoy much or any of the stuff on show.
Top of the bill was the Masters. I must have watched nearly 15 hours of it this year. Sitting in the office today everything still has a deep green hue from staring to long at the lush manicured lawns of Augusta.
But try as they might the coverage was pretty dull. Peter Alliss spent most of his time giving out about how slow the play was. If I want to hear a pensioner moan about how long something takes I will hang around outside the loo in a retirement home.
He had some gems of comments but overall he sounded as bored as the rest of us. At the end Ken Brown suggested it might not be over as Immelman still had to sign his card. Spare us. A dull South African won, there was no magic from anybody or a surge from Tiger.
And Ian fuckin Poulter got a hole in one. I saw that shot more often than I saw the outdoors this weekend. That fact reflects more badly on me than it does the BBC.
Attempts at finding something of interest in the following also failed;
Bernard Dunne comeback: Boxing from Mayo. Oh dear
Man Utd vs. Arsenal: Arsenal score, give away a stupid penalty then lose. Surprise!
Leinster vs Munster: Leinster win a match against Munster that Munster dont really care about. If they needed to, really needed to, Munster would have won.
The only really interesting event was Queen of the South beating Aberdeen 4-3 in the Scottish cup semi final.
Thats right, drink in that sentence.
I need to get out more.
This weekend the more committed sports fans was looking forward to endless entertainment on the box and personally I was more excited than Max Mosley on a day trip to Nuremburg.
However, despite watching something like 30 hours of sport from Thursday night I found it hard to enjoy much or any of the stuff on show.
Top of the bill was the Masters. I must have watched nearly 15 hours of it this year. Sitting in the office today everything still has a deep green hue from staring to long at the lush manicured lawns of Augusta.
But try as they might the coverage was pretty dull. Peter Alliss spent most of his time giving out about how slow the play was. If I want to hear a pensioner moan about how long something takes I will hang around outside the loo in a retirement home.
He had some gems of comments but overall he sounded as bored as the rest of us. At the end Ken Brown suggested it might not be over as Immelman still had to sign his card. Spare us. A dull South African won, there was no magic from anybody or a surge from Tiger.
And Ian fuckin Poulter got a hole in one. I saw that shot more often than I saw the outdoors this weekend. That fact reflects more badly on me than it does the BBC.
Attempts at finding something of interest in the following also failed;
Bernard Dunne comeback: Boxing from Mayo. Oh dear
Man Utd vs. Arsenal: Arsenal score, give away a stupid penalty then lose. Surprise!
Leinster vs Munster: Leinster win a match against Munster that Munster dont really care about. If they needed to, really needed to, Munster would have won.
The only really interesting event was Queen of the South beating Aberdeen 4-3 in the Scottish cup semi final.
Thats right, drink in that sentence.
I need to get out more.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Player's player of the year
So we all know who is going to win it so lets get onto the real issue.
Why is Steven Gerrard on the list?
Making the case for Ronaldo, Fabregas, Adebayor and Torres is pretty easy, they all had good seasons, that is what the award is about.
David James has been nominated for making less mistakes than usual, hardly a ringing endorsement but tough to begrudge him the nomination after the abuse he has taken over the years.
But Gerrard. Maybe some of his "friends" in the Liverpool area made a few phone calls but it is hard to see any other reason why he has been nominated.
He has not been even close to being good this season and like the story about the best drummer in the Beatles, Gerrard has not even been the best midfielder in the Liverpool team this year, that honour going to Mascherano.
10 assists and 10 goals in the Premier League this season. Stats like that put him behind Berbatov, 11 assists and 14 goals,and no-one would suggest him for the Player of the Year.
However players like Robbie Keane, Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand have allhad great seasons and Gael Clichy also deserves to be nominated as he is now the best full back in the league.
It is worth noting that the two least deserving nominees are English.
Fabio Capello is a brave man.
Why is Steven Gerrard on the list?
Making the case for Ronaldo, Fabregas, Adebayor and Torres is pretty easy, they all had good seasons, that is what the award is about.
David James has been nominated for making less mistakes than usual, hardly a ringing endorsement but tough to begrudge him the nomination after the abuse he has taken over the years.
But Gerrard. Maybe some of his "friends" in the Liverpool area made a few phone calls but it is hard to see any other reason why he has been nominated.
He has not been even close to being good this season and like the story about the best drummer in the Beatles, Gerrard has not even been the best midfielder in the Liverpool team this year, that honour going to Mascherano.
10 assists and 10 goals in the Premier League this season. Stats like that put him behind Berbatov, 11 assists and 14 goals,and no-one would suggest him for the Player of the Year.
However players like Robbie Keane, Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand have allhad great seasons and Gael Clichy also deserves to be nominated as he is now the best full back in the league.
It is worth noting that the two least deserving nominees are English.
Fabio Capello is a brave man.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Munster Rugby, its just different, like
Let me be the first to admit that rubgy is not my area of expertise.
I tend to watch it in a fashion akin to those foreign leaders or film stars who occassionaly turn up at Croker for the All Ireland Hurling final.
I know the rules so I clap and shout when everybody else does and I know that I am watching something very skilful and brave but I couldn't tell you why or how it is happening.
But watching the Munster demolition of Gloucester yesterday you get the feeling that of all the great teams Ireland has produced to represent us in sport, surely this Munster team is the one we should be most proud of.
Euro 88 and Italia 90 teams were special, the Six Nations team of 2007 was great to watch and the cricketers were brilliant last yearbut none gives that sense of pride that Munster does.
I am not even from Munster but to watch the way they work for each other, fight for each other and operate so professionally it is very impressive.
I think they had 12 turnovers to 1 yesterday. Incredible stuff aganst the best team in England.
They face Saracens now after the beat the Ospreys. I think a second Heineken cup is on its way to Munster now.
And if the IRFU do not appoint Declan Kidney then they better pull Jose out of the bag cos we wont accpet anybody else!
I tend to watch it in a fashion akin to those foreign leaders or film stars who occassionaly turn up at Croker for the All Ireland Hurling final.
I know the rules so I clap and shout when everybody else does and I know that I am watching something very skilful and brave but I couldn't tell you why or how it is happening.
But watching the Munster demolition of Gloucester yesterday you get the feeling that of all the great teams Ireland has produced to represent us in sport, surely this Munster team is the one we should be most proud of.
Euro 88 and Italia 90 teams were special, the Six Nations team of 2007 was great to watch and the cricketers were brilliant last yearbut none gives that sense of pride that Munster does.
I am not even from Munster but to watch the way they work for each other, fight for each other and operate so professionally it is very impressive.
I think they had 12 turnovers to 1 yesterday. Incredible stuff aganst the best team in England.
They face Saracens now after the beat the Ospreys. I think a second Heineken cup is on its way to Munster now.
And if the IRFU do not appoint Declan Kidney then they better pull Jose out of the bag cos we wont accpet anybody else!
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