Now I'm All Confused

Hmmmm. Perhaps those "England regulars" who sloped off back to their teams (well, largely Chelsea) after the "job done" against the pitiful Welsh on Saturday won't be feeling quite so smug this morning. England Lite put on a performance that was thoroughly professional and entertaining to boot. And against far better opposition than Wales.

Perhaps Don Fabio may now feel he can ditch the old boys?

Reserves: Wigan 2 Arsenal 1

Jens played the whole 90 minutes, the team played most of the game with 10 men and we lost 2-1. And this evening it's England-Lite vs Ghana. Yippee.

Eezacont

So will you be watching John Terry's Ingerlund? I'm frankly not sure I can bring myself to - JT isn't really representative of much that I've ever cherised about England, I have to say, and I do think it matters. Interestingly, whilst Space Admiral Blackthorn said he'd support the English football team no matter who was captain, he backtracked when a certain Mr Cole was suggested for the role. "Cashley? No ****ing way!".

Perhaps he's a closet Cheryl fan.

WTF??? It's Titanic-Bot!

Here's a total "I want some of whatever the bloke who designed this is on" moment:



Has the return of Jens triggered an international insanity outbreak?

Conspiracy Theory Of The Day

Hmmm. Who won the 2010 World Cup? Where will the 2018 World Cup be held? A somewhat prescient article that's worth a couple of minutes of your time can be found here.

He's Back!

According to the red tops Mad Jens has rejoined until the summer. Absolutely fantastic news if true.



The rest of the season just got interesting!

And Here We Are Again

Another Monday comes around and this week the sun's come out to play too. Nice here, nowhere near so nice in Japan of course. Good luck to all you out there.

On the home front, apparently there's a good chance John Terry will be made captain for the upcoming Wales game. This wouldn't be a good thing IMHO. What would be a good thing, however, is Mad Jens playing for the Arsenal again and it's being reported that there is also some chance of this. Now that would be fun.

Facebook

I still can't get my head round this. Beer.

They Won't Like It Up 'Em

Still fuming over the RVP10 dismissal, I've come to a decision. I'm supporting Spurs to win the CL. Odd? No, makes perfect sense. What better way to nip over to Europe, give the English-hating Platini and his UEFA cronies a bloody nose and get back in time for tea than for 'Arry "Barrow Boy" Redknapp to win the thing. "Gawd bless you, Mr Platini" as he lifts the trophy. Fuck 'em. Make it so, 'Arry.

Alan Green last night on 5 Live seems to have missed the point. Not unusual, I'll grant, entertaining though he might be. At the point RVP was sent off BARCELLONA WERE LOSING. Let's do that again. BARCELLONA WERE ON THEIR WAY OUT OF THE CL. Barcellona are in the next round by dint of the referee giving them an unfair advantage. Willingly or not they have cheated their way there. So hurry up 'Arry.

I'm going down the pub.

Afghan Heroes Gig 2 April 2011

Pop along to the Queens Head, Fishponds Road, Bristol on the evening of 2 April 2011 for an evening of music and frivolity in support of the Afghan Heroes charity - many of the attendees will be taking part in the Ride Of Respect through Wooton Bassett on the following morning.

Music from The Fraser Road Race Band and Rock Bottom, probably the cheapest beer in Bristol and lots of people in leather. Sounds good, yes?

Hey Mr Tangerine Man

David Dein wants to become FA chairman, apparently, and Commrade Usmanov has bought a few more shares, raising fears he may actually be planning to attempt a take over at the Arsenal. Quivvers all round, and not just from the snow.

The Joy Of The Interweb

Hey, most cool indeed!

Check out this here site playmates!

Cheers, Drives

Sorry, this one's a tad late.


Good evening with the drives on Saturday. Thank you chaps. Have a great Christmas.

Actually, He Might Be Right This Time

Ashley goes bonkers again? Wouldn't be the first time, so the latest Newcastle shocker might well at first glance look like yet another blunder. But then, maybe not. I for one - on the admittedly none-too-sound assumption that the new manager really is a "good" one - think this may just well be a very shrewd move indeed.

Watch that there space, I reckon.

No Really, You're Too Kind

At the bus stop at 07.50, raring to get into a new week. Still at the bus stop, and now frozen to the pavement, when a bus finally arrives at 08.35. Penguin-like, we the would-be passengers waddle towards the platform. Some of us even manage to get on. To discover the fares have gone up. Apparently, this is to make life easier for us penguins as we no longer need to carry about so much change. Bollocks. This doesn't help me at all. Up to today I carried a £2 coin which I gave to the driver and he gave me 5p back. So I'd still be carrying one coin both before and after the transaction. After today I will be carrying a £2 coin and not giving it to the bus driver because I will be walking to work in future. Thus I will still be carrying one coin.

The new policy does mean the bus drivers won't need to carry so much change, but in my experience they don't carry any anyway, and end up being told "oh never mind" by punters not thinking life to be long enough to wait whilst the driver explains that he hasn't got 5p, but that he could offer 2p now and 3p when you get off, if he's got it - or offer you a change ticket which appears to be some means the bus company uses to screw money out of you for absolutely nothing at all.

Enough already.

Same Old

So no surprises in yesterday's news announcements. England didn't get the 2018 WC, NASA had in fact not discovered alien life but some unusual, though entirely terrestrial, bug in a lake in California. Much angst and dismay at the WC outcome in many places, most of it entirely justified IMHO. Whatever the strengths of the Russian bid the whole vote procedure stank most rank. And then Qatar got the 2022 WC. Right.

A number of people are suggesting England should boycott FIFA. I suspect this wouldn't work, but I think England not entering future WCs makes perfect sense. Concentrate on the European Championships where, let's face it, the majority of the decent teams play anyway. This will at least cut England's contribution to the FIFA cash cow.

As BoJo pointed out yesterday, FIFA can't continue in its present state. It's not even as if it's tainted with the *suspicion* of corruption - the evidence is there for all to see (they've even suspended their own members) and until there is radical change every even vaguely controversial decision will be seen as potentially the outcome of yet more underhand dealings.

I suppose one good thing to come of this is another nail in the coffin of the Bristol City new stadium fiasco. With no potential WC function to get excited about, the council may finally realise that they can't justify wasting more open space (and allowing yet another giant supermarket) just so a team that will quite possibly be in the third division of English football next season can have a WC standard stadium.

I fully agree that Bristol as a city could do with a world-class multi-function stadium but it should be one that potentially benefits the people of Bristol, not just Sainsburys and whoever owns the new ground. Build a really decent stadium/facility up by the M4/M5 junction.

Beer later?

A Day For Improbable News, Perhaps?

So by the end of today (or actually a tad earlier if you must be pedantic) we may discover that England will host the 2018 World Cup Of Soccerball (15.00 GMT/Pedant Time) and that NASA have discovered proof of extra-terrestrial life (19.00 GMT etc). Equally, or perhaps more probably, we'll learn that the WC will be in Iberia - they by all reports having put in the worst bid - and that NASA have discovered something related to all the red dwarfs that have apparently just turned up.

On the improbable (if you thought about it a couple of months back) but now actual news front, Arsenal face Mad Roy's Keane's Ipswich in the semi-finals of the Carling Cup. That Ipswich beat West Brom (not-so-long ago victors at the Emirates) on the back of a twatting from Naaarch in the Old Farm Derby makes you wonder just how good Delia's boys are. Maybe it's the food. She does a good roast in that TV ad atm.

Today's sandwiches weren't frozen. This is an improvement, I feel.

And They're Off...

The Mos, that is. All gone. Well, all bar Rob's. He's a bit taken with his. He'll be a bit more taken when the men in white coats turn up, you mark my words.


£1,122 raised by Team Curtis Banks - pretty good stuff, I'd say, in support of a worthy cause.

Movember

Coming shortly. Men everywhere will be spending November growing moustaches to raise awareness of prostate cancer. There's still time to start your own team or otherwise get involved, so visit Movember and take a look.

Maybe They Didn't Warn Him About The Rain

So Steve Coppell's left the bobbin' lot from the other end of town after a mere 112 days in charge and with a competitive record of played two, lost two. David James must be wishing he'd joined the queue of ancient keepers outside the Emirates hoping for a job rather than ply his trade on a patch of grass which is going to be a supermarket sooner rather than later, I suspect.

Meanwhile the seagulls continue to plan. I don't suppose they care that John and I are on to them, they know their time will come.