More Tea Vicar

Tea. Wonderful stuff at any time, particularly fine when, as I do now, you need a bit of a kick to get through the day. Bring it on. Lots of it.

Chelski are away at Barca on the box tonight. I imagine I'll watch it though my mind will, I feel, be on tacos. Lovely, lovely pork, gorgeous soft corn tortillas, tangy salsa... I'm decidedly hungry. Colds will do that to you, mind.

No arsenews at all today, but no doubt there'll be some team news to mull over in the morning. Til then, then...

Today's Headache Is Not Brought To You By Beer

Which is a shame, since if it were at least I'd have the memory (if only partial) of an entertaining few hours. As it is I merely have the (complete) memory of another night's sleep interupted by the demands of the latest cold bug. Still, things could be far worse: consider the case of Luton's Sol Davis who's suffered a stroke at the age of 27. Thankfully it looks as if he's expected to make a full recovery and to be back playing in six months or so. Best wishes to him.

Not the greatest result for us at the weekend, though for a quite a while it looked like it might be rather worse. We need to pick the pace up again with a win against CSKA on Wednesday but there's hardly the cause for panic the ususal doom and gloom merchants are coming up with.

Photos of the weekend's festivities in (surprisingly for the time of the year) sunny Kent to follow in due course.

The Bug's Back

Well, that or it's another one - either way I'm sniffling and coughing like a good 'un. I still feel better than I did with Monday's hangover, though, so that's some mild relief.

Cracking games in the Carling Cup last night - good result for us (and many words of praise from the Baggies' boss), dreadful result for the Hammers (who, for some reason - usually the wrong one - are appearing rather too often in this blog) and an unfortunate one for Doncaster. Brainiac won't be best pleased, I suspect.

Crewe vs ManUSA tonight, and Blackburn vs Chelski. I'd rather watch the latter but it's not on, so it'll be the former for tonight's entertainment. Let's hope it is.

Tuesday Already?

That's what a Sunday in Brizzle'll do for you I guess, yesterday was a complete write-off as far as I was concerned. Great day Sunday, mind, particularly as FF4 did exactly as I'd asked in a previous post and played a blinder. Great result, really good to watch, too.

Defoe's Tysonesque assault on one of those West Ham Argies is dominating the Red Tops' back pages ATM - hardly surprising IMHO as it's both funny and appalling. The FA have leapt into inaction as usual, but it's hard to see how they can fail to do something about this incident, particularly as the referee has categorically stated that the bite wasn't punished by him at the time.

League Cup stuff tonight, which I have to say I always rather enjoy, not least because we get to see a few of the up-and-coming and fringe players get a run out. I'm sure it'll be on the box on some or another channel so that's my evening mapped out. Cool.

Oh, and by the way, my copy of John Nicholson's book "Footy Rocks" arrived yesterday. Corking stuff, you owe it to yourself to nip off to Football365 and order it.

UPDATE: It's just been announced that KT5 has signed a new long-term contract to stay at Arsenal. Excellent news!

Not A Good Day For The Surgery To Forget Your Prescription

Ah ha! Cool - FF4 has signed his new eight-year deal, his agent has announced. This is cracking news. Let's hope he celebrates with an absolute stormer against Reading at the weekend.

In other new, FisherGate continues apace. More news on this later, I hope.

If You Have Any Spare Sleep, I'd Like It Please

Because that bug has left me absolutely hanging. I'll not be losing any sleep over last night's result, though. I thought we really didn't get it together at all in the first half but looked far better in the second and that the draw that TH14's perfectly legitimate but disallowed goal would have given us would have been the right result. This sort of thing is going to happen with a young team - particularly one forcibly reshaped after yet more injuries - and if it is going to happen then I'd rather it happened in a game like last night's which, with any luck, won't count for too much at the end of the day.

Roll on Reading at the weekend.

Ooh, Is It Raining?

Of course it's ****ing raining, this is bloody Somerset. It's absolutely teeming it down, just as it was yesterday and the day before that...

Some unknown (but virulent and apparently very popular) bug has had me laid up for a day or so, hence the lack of posts. But here I am now, back at work and wishing I was still in bed.

Good result for us on Saturday and good to see TW32 get a start. We've got a lot of good-looking options now and the roll goes on, long may it continue.

Best wishes to Petr Cech for a speedy and thorough recovery from what appears to be a very nasty injury indeed. He may play for Chelski but he's a human being (and by all reports a fine one at that) and football *is* just a game. Some things really are more important.

A Bad Day For Templars

And not such a good one for us either as it looks like we've lost EE27 for a month or more with knee ligament damage and both FL8 and JB9 look likely to be out for a couple of games, too. Still, we've got a stong squad these days and I'm hoping for a decent result (well, alright, any sort of win) at home to Watford on Saturday.

Friday night is beer night and all that, but since illness has decimated my pool of potential drinking buddies I think I'll be spending the evening in attempting to relearn the guitar ahead of a possible appearance at The Boss' birthday do next month.

Chaos at work once again...

Have a cracking weekend!

Off With His Head

A mite extreme? Possibly, but no less likely a fate for the wretched Steve McClaren than the sacking he very richly deserves but won't get either. With five months before the next meaningful international (if that's not a contradiction in terms, at least where England are concerned) now would be as good a time as any for the FA to admit what many of us have been saying all along - that they chose the wrong man - and get rid of him. They won't, of course, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't.

Yesterday's was a horrible, horrible performance - so awful that Citizen Neville's strike was actually an England highlight for me, the only bit of the display that brought a smile to my face. Sure, England aren't as good a bunch of players as they're sometimes hyped-up to be and there are a few injuries about. However, these are still good players and there are others out there (Beckham, Bridge anyone?) who can do a very good job at this level. The problem lies squarely with McClaren. It's time for him to go.

Plot Completely Lost On Korean Peninsula

North Korea are now saying that any US (specifically US, they don't appear to be bothering with the rest of the world) sanctions will be considered an "act of war" and will be met with a "physical" response. WTF are these people on?

Young TW32 had a great night last night, coming off the bench to net a couple of fine goals for the England U-21 team. Good on him and a good result for England. A better result, I suspect, than the senior team are likely to achieve this evening.

There's a bit more in the news today about the West Ham takeover saga - it now appears that an Icelandic gentleman with a history in football administration is interested for around the £75 million mark. This deal looks (a) more likely to happen and (b) far more likely to be in the interests of the Hammers as a club than the Iranian chap's proposal...

North Korea Detonates Nuclear Device, USA Declares War On Lettuce

In a puzzling and rather worrying break from their usual policy of brinkmanship North Korea have detonated a nuclear device in an underground test facility in the north of the country. I have no idea where they're going with this, but it's unlikely to be anywhere good :(

No Arsenews today of note that I've been able to find, but at least it looks as if we've got halfway through the international break without picking up too many injuries. FL8 limped off against Spain with a calf strain and is doubtful for the next international, but otherwise we've come through unscathed so far. Keep your fingers crossed.

The West Ham takeover looks back on the cards again, and there are reportedly a couple of consortia interested. A price in the £100m region is being mooted. More news on this as and when.

Friday Night Is Beer Night

Which comes as a very very great relief as it's been a bloody awful week.

The internationals mean there's little football news of interest ATM, but JL1 is reportedly eyeing a new Arsenal deal when his current one expires at the end of the season (it had originally been looking likely he'd be moving back to Germany). If he continues to play as he has been then I really hope we can keep him for the extra year.

That's your lot, have a good weekend.

Halfway To Nowhere In Particular

A bit of encouraging Arsenews today: PS6 and GC22 both played in last night's 2-1 reserve team win at West Ham. PS6 played the whole game, GC22 just the first half, but that was the intention from the start rather than any problem with his recovery. With these two back - and I suppose that the international break is good news for them, giving them a bit more time - we've now got real competition for places all over the pitch. Good news indeed.

It looks as if the proposed takeover of West Ham by some Iranian wannabe isn't going to happen after all. I have to say I think it's in the best interests of English football if this sort of corporate takeover - done purely for profit rather than a love of the game - doesn't happen at all. Difficult to avoid, I suppose, when the majority of clubs are publicly quoted companies but the West Ham deal in particular had a very noxious odour to it.

UPDATE: The BBC is reporting (as I daresay are others) that David Dein has been appointed Chairman of the G14 group. It would also appear that the West Ham takeover bid isn't actually dead in the water yet, but that the board is going to give the Iranian chap a "put up or shut up" order. Not a good time to be a Hammers fan, I suspect.

It's Shaping Up To Be An Awful Day

Another school shooting in the US - in an Amish community, of all places - has so far left five kids, and the shooter, dead. North Korea have now publicly announced their intention to test a nuclear device "in the future", whatever that's supposed to mean. Al is back in hospital. Al, if by some bizarre chance you are reading this, get well soon, mate, we're all rooting for you here.

The Stevens report might really have been announced as "Panorama 2". There was little solid announced, though this is hardly surprising at this stage, I would imagine there's no chance of names being named unless charges are going to follow. His next, presumably final, report is due in December. Yawn.

Looks like JL1 is going to be offered a new one-year deal. This is good news, indeed, IMHO. Apparently, "according to sources", AW is also considering bringing in Le Mans' young keeper Yoann Pele (about whom I know nothing whatsoever) which makes some sense as we do need to invest in a long-term goalkeeping prospect.

War On Spinach Won, RVP11 Scores Goal Of The Season

Not least because it looks better/less believable every time you see it, I can't imagine there's going to be a likelier candidate for goal of the season than RVP11's second strike on Saturday. Awesome, truly awesome.

A good game, too, as it happens. Charlton certainly look a lot better than their position in the table suggests and a win there was a fine result, IMHO. We're really on something of a roll at the moment, so we'll just have to hope that the season's second interuption for internationals doesn't stall us. Quite why we've had to put up with two of these international breaks already in a season that for us is only 6 games old is beyond me, it's simply ridiculous.

Meanwhile, the War On Spinach is over it seems, and it's safe to eat the stuff again. Well that's a relief. Mind you, with the exception of the presumably fictitious Popeye, I don't think I've ever actually seen an American eating spinach.

Lord Stevens is due to deliver his report into questionable transfers, etc., at 16.30 this afternoon. Some comment on this tomorrow, I imagine.