Media circus; lights, camera, action

Interesting morning reviewing what has been said and done in the newspapers with regards to this weekends football action. I am rather amused by Harry Redknapp’s desperate attempts to stay the focus of media attention and use his cronies to tout for potential new jobs. He outlines that Arsenal selling Robin Van Persie is a bad bit of business for Arsenal in his Sun column which is potentially a fair comment but then goes onto say that they will really struggle to get into the top 4 this season. Harry Redknapp believes that Tottenham will again close the gap on Arsenal (he is judging this on Tottenham signing only 2 new players so far, having 1 proper striker available for selection and fails to discuss the fact that they are due to lose their best player in Luka Modric). Interesting how he uses his article to outline how much weaker Arsenal are going to be as they are selling their best player whilst Tottenham are doing the exact same thing.

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Redknapp goes onto suggest that Manchester United and Manchester City will compete for the title and no one else will get near them and he believes Chelsea are going to struggle to fit all their new signings into the side and therefore struggle to finish top 4 in the Premier League. I am curious as to who Redknapp thinks will finish in the top 4 this season as he seemingly rules out most teams. I hope someone gives him a job soon so we don’t have to put up with a whole season of his bile in newspapers and on television. He like everyone else should delay making definite conclusions until the season has developed and ay least wait until clubs have completed their transfer business. Manchester City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Sunderland and most other clubs will be doing a lot of business before the transfer window shuts therefore the it is pointless drawing conclusions at this stage.

It was a great start of the season however and my only wish is that the media celebrate this, celebrate Swansea playing magnificently and winning 5-0 away from home, West Brom having a fantastic opening result and even celebrate Portsmouth being able to even play a game at Fratton Park and Rotherham playing the first game at their fantastic new stadium after such troubled times.

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Judging from what I have read this morning, the vouchers are circling however on Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers framing them as a ‘crisis club’ and as usual Arsenal are in crisis at the start of the season. After writing a lot of columns about how footballers need to change their behaviour after the heroics of the Olympians at London 2012, maybe the journalists need to think about adopting a different approach and give the scaremongering and doomsday stories a rest - especially on the first day of the football season!

Football is Dead predictions... an unfortunate first attempt!

What an unfortunte face to start the video with... Well this is my first attempt at it and the sound is a bit rubbish and it's all a bit dry and dull. I hope to get more comfortable doing videos during the season and improve the quality....cheers.

Weekend football and Sunday Brunch

It has been a fantastic weekend of football viewing and as the season is coming to climax I am looking forward to witnessing the sharp end of the season once again. I feel I am in a fortunate position as my wife is also a football fan and this allows me to indulge in hours of viewing football all over the world at any given time. I am sure she has her reasons for allowing me to lose myself in so many games, whatever they may be, I am grateful.

I watched Sunday Brunch on channel 4 on Sunday morning with Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer, they had Richard Bacon on as a guest amongst others. Richard Bacon declared that he hoped his son would not be a sports fan, primarily because it takes up so much time to be a sports fan. I feel he has a valid point, if I invested as much time into learning languages as I do watching football then surely I would be able to converse in a magnitude of different ways which I acknowledge would be wholly more impressive than discussing why the referee cost 'us' the points in an important home game.

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My feeling is I am stuck this way now, it is now an obsession. Maybe I could get some help with it? See a professional? Go to meetings like alcoholic anonymous or narcotics anonymous. Coincidentally I learnt that there are many different support groups on offer to people, one is called CoDA for people who view themselves as co-dependent. Maybe I could go there for my football obsession?

I guess the problem is, a lack of a problem. I can easily spend 8 or 9 hours out of my day watching football but where is the harm in that? I am still functioning, I am happy and this leads me believe that co-dependency may not be such a bad thing in my case. If people like me did not exist then who would really care about football anyway? The players would not be paid so much, in fact probably not paid at all. No one would be in the stadiums, it would not be on television and it would be of little interest. People like keep the beautiful game alive and they know it. They do not know it? Surely...

This weekend I have watched the following games; Queens Park Rangers vs Tottenham, Barcelona vs Real Madrid, Manchester United vs Everton, Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Manchester City, Juventus vs Roma, Valencia vs Real Betis, Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol, Banfield vs San Lorenzo. I have also seen highlights of all the games in different countries, listened to the Arsenal vs Chelsea game on the radio as well watching some of the Sparta Prague game.

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Tonight I intend to watch Leicester City vs West Ham and anything else that takes my fancy. I have a definite obsession and it is not going away, for better and for worse I am stuck with it.

Game of the weekend in my opinion was Juventus vs Roma. I hope more Italian clubs build modern stadiums as it truly has brought new life to the Old Lady.

An ode to the football maverick

The modern age of football has heralded an era of professional footballers being elite athletes, media savvy, and almost monosyllabic in all forms of output. Footballers are more machine like than they used to be with their lifestyles, diets, sleep and all manner of other exciting things carefully managed. Their performance is carefully monitored by the use opta statistics and other mathematical based systems and on the whole the beautiful game has become more clinical and would not look out of place on a deeply cleaned clinical ward at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

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Forget the question, 'is football dead', one should be examining if football has become boring.

To avoid getting into a long winded debate, for which I simply have no time for at the moment. I would rather celebrate my favourite football species, the magnificent 'maverick'.

Long has been the tradition in British football that the maverick is the most sought after footballer on the pitch. The rock star of the team, ordinarily given full licence to attack and have nothing to do with defending what so ever, mainly due to managers anxieties of a lack of responsibility and fear of the unexpected. When considering  the 'maverick', the players that immediately spring to mind are the likes of George Best, Stan Bowles, Tony Currie, Charlie George, Alan Hudson, Rodney Marsh, Peter Osgood, and Frank Worthington. Indeed, British football was blessed with 'mavericks' in the 1970's.

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This small population characters are in danger of becoming extinct in the modern age of football. Managers have lost patience with those with raw ability without the application. Those who are blessed with ability for the sublime, but equally for the abhorrent. Those types of characters are few and far between in the robotic football we all watch now but those who have graced the pitches of these isles have been celebrated and treasured. Manchester United supporter's will forever chant for Eric Cantona and QPR supporters are currently enjoying the enigma that is Adel Taarabt. Mario Balotelli has already been discussed on this blog and is an example of the 'maverick' going through harsh times.

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My modern favourite is undoubtedly Andrey Arshavin however. Beautiful, funny and frustrating to watch at Arsenal, being a 'maverick' was ultimately his downfall in a modern game where being clinical is paramount. Poor fitness, erratic displays where he would miss a 2 yard pass followed by scoring from 30 yards were accepted by the hierarchy and fans alike when he scored 12 goals and had 7 assists in 39 games during the 2009-10 season followed by 10 goals and 17 assists in 52 games the following season. The tide turned on the lovable Russian when his output became less, he became less clinical, he had less assists, less goals, and had not as much influence on the games he was involved with. His antics started being held with derision rather than being celebrated by supporters and it was inevitable that the 'meerkat' would leave England and return to Russia.

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Having looked through the weekends football action I raised a smile however as it seems Mr. Arshavin has not lost the ability to do something completely different on the football pitch. During the Zenit St. Petersburg against CSKA Moscow tie on Saturday Andrey delivered something that was more attune to a sketch from Monty Python than that of a Russian football title decider. Rather than describe in words his actions, please watch for yourself and join me in celebrating the endangered world of the football 'maverick'.

For weekly updates on the world of Andrey Arshavin I thoroughly recommend visiting his website and in particular the 'ask Andrey' section.

http://arshavin.eu/en/discuss.php?fid=15