Save Newcastle United

Now I am nlsonot a Newcastle supporter by a long shot. My primary interest in them is whether they get the loss they should get against Arsenal, and whether they are able to get a draw or something against the others of the big 4.

But we all know the recent Mike Ashley saga, don’t we? King Kev thrown out… Ashley wining and dining the Arabs, and asking for GBP 400 M… Now really, GBP 400 M!!! And now a Nigerian consortium is trying to buy Ashley out …

And here comes Save Newcastle United. Remember, last season, there were similar talks about Liverpool being bought over by the fans…. but that came to nought. This, I hope is better.

I do know that Newcastle United one of the few other clubs the world over which can claim to be ‘more than a club’. I will agree to Barcelona, and Mohun Bagan. Newcastle, similarly, is a part of local / community pride, and is really a Geordie symbol just like Barcelona is Catalan.

John Nicholson (from oop north himself) puts it better than most:

Now is not the time for faint hearts, the time for the whining and whinging and bitching to stop has come. It’s no use just hoping something better will come along and make everything alright. It’s time to take NUFC, a quintessential ‘people’s club’, to the bosom of those who love and understand it best. A peoples’ revolution to over-throw the regimes which seek only to profit financially from the club or who want to use it as a play-thing or as a place to do their corporate business deals.

Click here for the entire article, on F365.

And here is the site for Save Newcastle United- click here. So if you feel you can do something, please go ahead.

I can tell you this much, if a similar fate befalls Mohun Bagan, I will chip in. with quite a bit of what I have got.

I am a plastic fan. This is my defense. Our defense.

I am what you call a plastic fan. Of Arsenal. And Barcelona. I am from Bangalore, India, and here’s my defense. And that of the millions that you ridicule every day.
I love the game. Having been initiated into football via the magical skills of Diego Madarona in ‘86, I cannot think of life without the game. I have played the game at a reasonable level, and still try to manage a game every weekend. Not very different from you, am I?
I have an Indian club I love, Mohun Bagan AC. I don’t stay in my city of origin, Kolkata (Mohun Bagan is from that city), anymore, so I don’t get to go to the stadium too many times anymore (Bangalore to Kolkata is 2000 miles, yes, that was 2000 miles), I used to be a regular. I wept after a defeat, especially to our eternal rivals, East Bengal FC. I was jubilant after wins. I still am, watching the matches on TV. I am what you call a normal football fan, I love my club.
Just like you love Huddersfield. Just like you love Bradford, just like you love Derby.
But I also love the game itself. And I am honest enough to accept that Mohun Bagan, or East Bengal, or Dempo, or Mahindra Utd. , don’t really provide that kind of football. That does not make me love my club any less, that just makes me want to get a chance to watch and enjoy better football too.
And therefore came the Premiership. And therefore came the Primera Liga. I love how well they play the game I love in your country. And in Spain. There is the television, and I don’t miss a match.
I am watching the league from 1998 (that is about the time when the Premier League started being aired regularly in Indian TV, thank you Star Sports / ESPN), I was 18 then. Tony Adams is my hero, and Dennis Bergkamp is only second to Diego Maradona in the God-stakes, in my book. I HATE Luis Figo, he’s the real Judas. I am jubilant when Arsenal wins, I am dejected when Arsenal loses. I follow every match, I follow the post-season, and just like you, I wanted us to have a holding midfielder too. And no, I didn’t want Alonso, I wanted Toulalan. Ah, wishes… I am a fan.
And yes, I have been to your stadia (not to the Emirates or Highbury, sadly. Never stayed in England long enough to manage that yet), and I know that the tears that you cry when your club loses will never be the same as my sadness at an Arsenal defeat. But I know the tears, I have cried them after a Bagan loss.
But does it mean that our sadness at an Arsenal defeat counts for nothing? We came to the premiership looking for great football, we found a club we would like to follow, and we followed the club. And devoted we have been, for the last ten years. And yes we don’t have perspective; they started showing the Premier League on TV only ten years ago. I thought we did the best we could as fans. Where did we go wrong?
I thought it was the universal game.
- Godof86 (don’t ever say ‘third world’ again without knowing what the word originates from), Arsenal, Barcelona and Mohun Bagan.

Fat Ronaldo to Citeh?

Will Man City have one of the best wing combinations in the league this year in Petrov and SWP?

One of the best, yes.

 

And waste it by signing a slow and past-it Ronaldo?

Oft – injured, yes. Slow? Past it? Neither’s true. The guy has been (at par with Zidane) the best footballer in the post-Maradona era. And can still score goals for fun. If Citeh manages to get 20 matches out of him in the league, they will get 15 goals, if not more. Whenever he had played for Milan in the last two years (which is not much) he has put them in the back of the net often. And this is in Serie A, a more defensive league. 

 

Citeh fans should be jubilant if Fat Ronaldo comes in.

Andriy Shevchenko leaves for Milan

A chapter ends in the English premiership. A chapter that promised to be great, promised to be memorable,  but a chapter that ended up depressingly short, so much so that tunnel-visioned English and Asian fans of the Premiership (and nothing else) will end up remembering this particular episode with sarcastic humor.

And that is unfortunate. Andriy Shevchnko came into Chelsea as the best striker in the world, just returning from scoring the winning goal in a Champion’s league final. He was an expensive purchase, he was a personal friend of Roman Abramovich. He would be playing for Chelsea, the club with all the money in the world, the club on its way up, and the club with the inimitable Jose Mourinho. Andriy Shevchenko was almost destined to be a success.

And really, he should have been. He had it all, and in his peak, he could really be compared with the best of the best out-and-out strikers of this generation, Marco Van Basten and Gabriel Batistuta. Even Thierry Henry. Probably only Ronaldo (the gap-toothed original) could be considered better than him… Shevchenko was brilliant all the way. He was spectacular in his days of youth, forming a super partnership with Serhiy Rebrov at Dynamo Kyiv…. and he was absolutely unstoppable at times with Milan.

But then, somehow, he failed to kick on in Chelsea. The mistrust that Mourinho had for him, allied with Mourinho’s deteriorating relationship with Abramovich put Shevchenko at a state of unease. Also, Didier Drogba having the season of his life did not help much either.

Mourinho’s penchant for playing only one man up front, apparently, should have suited Shevchenko, for Milan used to play a similar game. But the difference was that with Chelsea under Mourinho, Drogba was expected to hold the long ball up front for the midfielders (Lampard, Joe Cole et al.) to have a crack at; while in Milan, the deep-lying creative genius of Andrea Pirlo linked to the further-up-the-pitch creativity of Kaka and Clarence Seedorf to create chances for Sheva. Both tactics work, it was just that Drogba was better than Sheva at Mourinho’s style of play.

Shevchenko really had everything. Pace, strength, headers, skill, control, temperament, poaching ability… even a mean free-kick. He had everything that would have suited him to every league in the world, and he would have suited excellently to the Chelsea of Ranieri or even Scolari. It’s just that in Mourinho’s Chelsea, Drogba, with his superhuman strength and ability to hold the ball off three defenders, was a better fit.

Adn yet, Premiership-watchers will remember Sheva as little more than a failure. And he deserves better. He is a winner. And who knows, he might do well again at Milan. Here’s praying for that.

It’s not (only) about the football..

it’s also a lot about the statistics, and the joy of educated guessing, and the uncertainty of it all, and the victorious post-success feel of solving a puzzle…

… that attracts me to Fantasy Football (I play this click here).

Quizzing was that once, but really, I am not too heavily interested in the esoteric. I am more of a specialist within narrow confines. Puzzles are nice, but the sense of competition is not there, it is a lonely pursuit. I don’t like lonely pursuits. Ditto Crosswords and Sudoku. Online scrabble (click here) comes the closest, but in all honesty, I am not very good at it.

So there, Fantasy Football. After a great first week (70 points), I am stuck with a nightmare… now how will I know that Arsenal will lose, Liverpool will concede and Afonso Alves will be subbed at 59:30 mins?

Fantasy Football bandwagons

Ross Turnbull MI 4.0

If you get a 4.0 first-choice goalkeeper as your reserve, he has to be from the promoted teams, right? Wrong. Make your appearance, Ross Turnbull.

Luke Young AV 4.5

Again, a 4.5 first choice defender has to be from the bottom ten teams, right? Wrong. Luke Young’s just recently transferred in to Villa from Middlesbrough.

Ashley Young AV 8.5

8.5 for one of the top forwards from last year’s tourney, who has been reclassified as a midfielder (thus will be getting one point for every clean sheet too). Is that manna from heaven?

Daniel de Ridder WI 4.5

They say, you cannot get a better midfielder at 4.5

Dean Ashton WH 6.5

They say, you cannot get a better forward at less than 7.5

Heurelho Gomes…

Good guy, and one of my favourite goalkeepers, right from his PSV days.

Alas, for he will play for Spurs next season. As a fan, I’d not wish him fumbles, but I certainly can ask for no great saves or something, for those few matches that we meet, non?

(Click here for article on F365)

At the risk of re-stating the oft-stated..

Ahem….

Dan Levy and Sp*rs ….. Dimi ….. ManUre…

Ahem….

Alex Ferguson and ManUre…. CRonaldo ….. Real Madrid….

 

And ‘Sir‘ talks of Real showing disrespect to him and his club!!!

Her highness, wouldn’t you like to take the knighthood back from such a lying, conniving, two-faced scumbag as this?

The Un-Brazilian Brazilian

In one sentence – Gilberto, prosaic, did his job very well indeed.

There’s a nice tribute to him on the Arsenal website, do have a look (click here).

 

The Brazilian never courted controversy and never spoke out of turn. He arrived quietly, he left quietly and, in between, he was quietly efficient. While emptier vessels made more noise, Gilberto just got the job done.

He will be missed. Thanks, and cheers!

And It has Arrived

Fantasy Premier League (Click here), what else?

And this is my team… (click here)

Want to challenge me? Make a team and join in to this league 72086-31689

(Click here) to join the league…

Oh, and I will pass regular tips, so you know my views on who to play and who not to…