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.