The football season ended in dramatic fashion with the play-offs and champions league final. We saw the worlds best team in Barcelona out-play Manchester United like a training match with Messi and co pulling the strings in the middle. And to top it off the Premier League is welcoming its first Welsh side into the top flight. A glorious end to a truly magnificent season of football across the globe.
But us football fans know that isn't the end of football for the season as because of the mass media football now gets its almost a yearly round thing on the back page of newspapers even in the off-season because of the countless transfer rumours. Players' agents are called in left, right and centre for statements on their players future giving away small hints. Papers somehow make up farce accusations such as Ronaldinho being linked with a move to... Blackburn Rovers? Bizarre is not the word. But it is these rumours that keeps football alive all year round and its what football fans love.
Whether your teams manager is going to pull a bunny out of the hat like Fergie did with Hernandez for a cut-price £6 million or your team is going to flop on players like Chelsea did with Andriy Shevchenko for £30 million. It gets the fans pumping and if the January transfer window is anything to go by, August 31st is going to be a stonker of a deadline day too.
But to sum-up the season of football with a football team as an example would have to be Blackpool. Not Barcelona. Not Manchester United. Not even Spain's dominance in international football. Blackpool because of the sheer passion and pride they brought back into just playing in the Premier League. Barcelona we know are the best team in the world that have probably graced a football field, and Blackpool would hardly stand a chance against them. But the tangerines stood out this season not only with their fluorescent orange kit, but with their tenacity and pride of being in English Footballs top tier, and led by one of footballs most fun-loving sons Ian Holloway. The misfortune of being relegated on the last day of the season can not take away the enjoyment they brought back to the Premier League and no doubt will follow into the Championship under Ian Holloway's guidance.
Lets just hope Premier League new-boys QPR and Swansea City can off that same exuberance that is still beaming over football fans' faces after a terrific season of football.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Hindsights a wonderful thing when lady luck isn't on your side
The glitz and glam off the track at Monte Carlo had definitely shined a bit of life into the Formula 1 drivers this weekend at the grand prix. Fans were treated to a real spectacle albeit for some unfortunate accidents that resulted in two drivers being hospitalised.
Formula 1 this year has been dominated by Sebastian Vettel's unbelievable ability to drive behind the wheel of that red bull car that everyone wants to try and take a look at to see what it is that makes the German so fast. But the truth of the matter is that we just have another great F1 driver in the making and he did his reputation no harm in winning a crazy and manic formula 1 race that nobody seemed to be fully in control of.
Lewis Hamilton was quickest in qualifying 1 and 2 on Saturday's session, but a risky move by the Mclaren team to send him out with 4 minutes to go to set a lap time backfired in the most unfortunate of cases: on his first flying lap Massa would not get out of his way causing him to give up on that lap and his second lap was halted by an almighty 100mph crash into the barriers for Sergio Perez resulting in Hamilton qualifying in 7th. To add further insult to injury the stewards deemed he ran over the chicane at turn 15/16 and got dropped to 9th. His race didn't prove much luck either with Hamilton on a mission he was pushing his car to the limit and was held up pretty much throughout the whole race by someone and on a circuit deemed Nye on impossible to pass he was never able to really overtake and storm through the pack. A drive through penalty was the kick in the teeth for Hamilton however as he was held back by Massa early on in the race he tried a sneaky move up the inside of Massanet and got cut off when Massa cut across him resulting in them touching and Hamilton getting the penalty. A race in which he was unlucky to finish 6th was mirrored by his team-mate who no doubt went home thinking if lady luck was on his side he would have gone home with the trophy.
Jenson Button had split the red bulls at the start of the grid and after pitting for his first stop he flew out the traps and took full advantage of a mix-up in the red bull garage which saw Button fly in the middle stint of the race into a commanding lead, but for some unknown reason Mclaren saw the need to pit him for a second time which in hindsight ruined his race as soon after he pitted the safety car was deployed and Button found himself 3rd. To his knowledge though he thought Vettel, who pitted only on the 16th lap, and Alonso who had his second stop on lap 34 would need to stop again because of the wear on the tyres. He was proved wrong, Vettel had somehow managed to preserve his tyres up until the 72nd lap where a big pile up where Alguersari and Petrov crashed out, Petrov ending up being hospitalised, and the race was stopped under a red flag but the race was to restart and Vettel and Alonso were both able to change tyres and then finish the race 1st and 2nd.
But a day which saw strategies the key to finding track positions saw sides like Sauber with Kobayashi, Adrian Sutil in the Force India and Pastor Maldonado in the Williams all used the safety cars to their full advantage and even though at the very end Maldonado collided with Hamilton and span into the barriers and Sutil was at the front of the pile up which caused the red flag Kobayashi was able to hold his nerve and finish a well deserved 5th place, no doubt in tribute to his team-mate Sergio Perez who was unable to make the grid due to his concussion.
The race was a real tribute to Formula 1 racing and even though there was some casualties, we saw some of the best contest across the field: the tightest finish for the top three, Hamilton's desire to get through the pack, the smaller sides jumping up the field to show they are here to challenge in Formula 1.
Monte Carlo has produced some amazing memories for every Formula 1 fan and for me this is going to be my amazing memory of Formula 1.
Formula 1 this year has been dominated by Sebastian Vettel's unbelievable ability to drive behind the wheel of that red bull car that everyone wants to try and take a look at to see what it is that makes the German so fast. But the truth of the matter is that we just have another great F1 driver in the making and he did his reputation no harm in winning a crazy and manic formula 1 race that nobody seemed to be fully in control of.
Lewis Hamilton was quickest in qualifying 1 and 2 on Saturday's session, but a risky move by the Mclaren team to send him out with 4 minutes to go to set a lap time backfired in the most unfortunate of cases: on his first flying lap Massa would not get out of his way causing him to give up on that lap and his second lap was halted by an almighty 100mph crash into the barriers for Sergio Perez resulting in Hamilton qualifying in 7th. To add further insult to injury the stewards deemed he ran over the chicane at turn 15/16 and got dropped to 9th. His race didn't prove much luck either with Hamilton on a mission he was pushing his car to the limit and was held up pretty much throughout the whole race by someone and on a circuit deemed Nye on impossible to pass he was never able to really overtake and storm through the pack. A drive through penalty was the kick in the teeth for Hamilton however as he was held back by Massa early on in the race he tried a sneaky move up the inside of Massanet and got cut off when Massa cut across him resulting in them touching and Hamilton getting the penalty. A race in which he was unlucky to finish 6th was mirrored by his team-mate who no doubt went home thinking if lady luck was on his side he would have gone home with the trophy.
Jenson Button had split the red bulls at the start of the grid and after pitting for his first stop he flew out the traps and took full advantage of a mix-up in the red bull garage which saw Button fly in the middle stint of the race into a commanding lead, but for some unknown reason Mclaren saw the need to pit him for a second time which in hindsight ruined his race as soon after he pitted the safety car was deployed and Button found himself 3rd. To his knowledge though he thought Vettel, who pitted only on the 16th lap, and Alonso who had his second stop on lap 34 would need to stop again because of the wear on the tyres. He was proved wrong, Vettel had somehow managed to preserve his tyres up until the 72nd lap where a big pile up where Alguersari and Petrov crashed out, Petrov ending up being hospitalised, and the race was stopped under a red flag but the race was to restart and Vettel and Alonso were both able to change tyres and then finish the race 1st and 2nd.
But a day which saw strategies the key to finding track positions saw sides like Sauber with Kobayashi, Adrian Sutil in the Force India and Pastor Maldonado in the Williams all used the safety cars to their full advantage and even though at the very end Maldonado collided with Hamilton and span into the barriers and Sutil was at the front of the pile up which caused the red flag Kobayashi was able to hold his nerve and finish a well deserved 5th place, no doubt in tribute to his team-mate Sergio Perez who was unable to make the grid due to his concussion.
The race was a real tribute to Formula 1 racing and even though there was some casualties, we saw some of the best contest across the field: the tightest finish for the top three, Hamilton's desire to get through the pack, the smaller sides jumping up the field to show they are here to challenge in Formula 1.
Monte Carlo has produced some amazing memories for every Formula 1 fan and for me this is going to be my amazing memory of Formula 1.
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
The Quintessential Englishness...
End of the football league season and we are now treated to what is one of the most anticipated part of the season. The Play-offs.
The cheesy chants. The cheesy intro music to start the programme. But instead of it making the play-offs a tad trashy, it all adds to the nostalgia a football fan gets watching the play-offs and last nights championship semi-final play-off between Swansea and Nottingham Forest was a fine example of British football. It had the heart from the fans, the quality from the players and the emotion from the managers. You could tell how badly each manager wanted it by every camera shot that cut to them jumping out their seats willing their players on almost like they were the puppeteers to their players.
Another event in the past week that arguably has reminded English football fans of their history in the game was the FA cup final between Stoke and Manchester City. Everybody thought that Manchester United winning the title at Blackburn would over-shadow the FA Cup final. Not a chance did it. Manchester United fans will argue obviously but if you saw how each game ended, the last 8 mins of the Man U V Blackburn game spent with the ball at Ferdinand's and Vidic's feet even though for Blackburn the draw wasn't really enough and Man U hadn't played like champions at all in that game going 1-0 down. But in the FA Cup final game we saw both teams chasing down to the final whistle, players pulling up because of the hard-work put in and the celebrations by the City fans when the final whistle went was deafening. The nostalgia you get from the FA Cup is unbeatable by any trophy in the world.
Back to the play-offs however is where you get the real gritty lower-league English style football, not much flash or diving, but the odd piece of genius like young Britton last night for Swansea curving the ball sweetly into the far corner from just outside the box leaving Camp helpless in goal. It's games like these that you get the unlikely hero perk up to the occasion and really take stand, the teams know how bigger reward it is to win in the play-offs. For the Championship sides its that extra-time in the season to show they are good enough to get into the promise land of the Premier League.
Last years play-offs definitely provided the pick of the bunch with Blackpool being promoted to the Premier League after Ian Holloway worked his magic at the club and his speech after his side won the game was inspiring to any football fan of any age, the passion he showed for his club that he had only been at for a season was something every man and women involved in football should learn from, someone that appreciates the game for what it is and revels in the small awards of pleasing his fans.
The question this year is who can be the Blackpool of these play-offs? Nottingham Forest are the first team to be knocked out of the play-offs this year. The play-offs are one of English footballs oldest traditions and definitely one of its finest too, fans get the quintessential Englishness feel about it because no other country can compete. This year certainly looks to be keeping up this fine tradition in the game.
The cheesy chants. The cheesy intro music to start the programme. But instead of it making the play-offs a tad trashy, it all adds to the nostalgia a football fan gets watching the play-offs and last nights championship semi-final play-off between Swansea and Nottingham Forest was a fine example of British football. It had the heart from the fans, the quality from the players and the emotion from the managers. You could tell how badly each manager wanted it by every camera shot that cut to them jumping out their seats willing their players on almost like they were the puppeteers to their players.
Another event in the past week that arguably has reminded English football fans of their history in the game was the FA cup final between Stoke and Manchester City. Everybody thought that Manchester United winning the title at Blackburn would over-shadow the FA Cup final. Not a chance did it. Manchester United fans will argue obviously but if you saw how each game ended, the last 8 mins of the Man U V Blackburn game spent with the ball at Ferdinand's and Vidic's feet even though for Blackburn the draw wasn't really enough and Man U hadn't played like champions at all in that game going 1-0 down. But in the FA Cup final game we saw both teams chasing down to the final whistle, players pulling up because of the hard-work put in and the celebrations by the City fans when the final whistle went was deafening. The nostalgia you get from the FA Cup is unbeatable by any trophy in the world.
Back to the play-offs however is where you get the real gritty lower-league English style football, not much flash or diving, but the odd piece of genius like young Britton last night for Swansea curving the ball sweetly into the far corner from just outside the box leaving Camp helpless in goal. It's games like these that you get the unlikely hero perk up to the occasion and really take stand, the teams know how bigger reward it is to win in the play-offs. For the Championship sides its that extra-time in the season to show they are good enough to get into the promise land of the Premier League.
Last years play-offs definitely provided the pick of the bunch with Blackpool being promoted to the Premier League after Ian Holloway worked his magic at the club and his speech after his side won the game was inspiring to any football fan of any age, the passion he showed for his club that he had only been at for a season was something every man and women involved in football should learn from, someone that appreciates the game for what it is and revels in the small awards of pleasing his fans.
The question this year is who can be the Blackpool of these play-offs? Nottingham Forest are the first team to be knocked out of the play-offs this year. The play-offs are one of English footballs oldest traditions and definitely one of its finest too, fans get the quintessential Englishness feel about it because no other country can compete. This year certainly looks to be keeping up this fine tradition in the game.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
...But that's Football
At the start of the season i think its safe to say that no fan would look at the league table now and think that it was going to be so tight all over the league. With just 3 league games each to play we still don't have one team that looks to be definitely relegated, the race for the last European spot is still heating up and the title race seems to change forces each week. It's proven to be one of the most fascinating league seasons to date and we just don't want it to end, unfortunately this year will most likely see the best team to have been relegated and probably the worst team to have won the league for a while as well.
The top and bottom half of the league table used to have such a massive gap between them that anyone that would usually finish in the bottom half were just described as a bottom half side and the same goes for the top half sides, and then the top four. But this year however the see-saw has seemed to level off so dramatically that a few wins for relegation bound West Brom has seen them spring up to 11th in the league and safe on 43 points. It has seen Sunderland, who were 8th and thinking of challenging for Europe at one stage plummet down the table into the craziness of the relegation fight. Madness
The only sides that haven't really enjoyed this season as much as has to be the top 4 or so sides. Liverpool had an horrific start to the season being down in the relegation places at one point resulting in Roy Hodgson's inevitable departure and King Kenny to pick up the remains where he could only seem to improve the squad. Manchester City and Tottenham haven't quite lived up to their start of season expectations but will be far more pleased than Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea. Neither have any silverware to their name this season and they don't seem to deserve to win the Premier League this year either, with countless chances for each team to just storm away with the league just thrown away. The relegation battle going on so late on into the season hasn't helped their fixture list in maybe trying to get that 'easy' game but in the Premier League you don't expect that 'easy' game and the standard that has been set in the past has been scrutinised by not one of the top 3 putting a stamp on the Premier League as yet.
The relegation battle immediately relates back to the 2005 relegation battle where it wasn't until the last day with who was definitely going down and the same heroics are going to have to be displayed this time round on the last weekend. With anyone of 6 teams still down there unfortunately the heroics shown early on in the season by Blackpool seem to have dwindled off into what now seems a distant fairytale, can Ian Holloway prove himself as a Premier League manager and rally his troops? Can Avram Grant muster up a team-talk like Scott Parker did at half-time against West Brom to spring a great recovery? So many questions will be asked of these relegation-threatened managers and with those who succeed will come those who don't and have to face the pain of leaving the Premier League.
But for whoever does go down this year they can definitely take away that on any other season they most likely would have stayed up.
But that's Football.
The top and bottom half of the league table used to have such a massive gap between them that anyone that would usually finish in the bottom half were just described as a bottom half side and the same goes for the top half sides, and then the top four. But this year however the see-saw has seemed to level off so dramatically that a few wins for relegation bound West Brom has seen them spring up to 11th in the league and safe on 43 points. It has seen Sunderland, who were 8th and thinking of challenging for Europe at one stage plummet down the table into the craziness of the relegation fight. Madness
The only sides that haven't really enjoyed this season as much as has to be the top 4 or so sides. Liverpool had an horrific start to the season being down in the relegation places at one point resulting in Roy Hodgson's inevitable departure and King Kenny to pick up the remains where he could only seem to improve the squad. Manchester City and Tottenham haven't quite lived up to their start of season expectations but will be far more pleased than Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea. Neither have any silverware to their name this season and they don't seem to deserve to win the Premier League this year either, with countless chances for each team to just storm away with the league just thrown away. The relegation battle going on so late on into the season hasn't helped their fixture list in maybe trying to get that 'easy' game but in the Premier League you don't expect that 'easy' game and the standard that has been set in the past has been scrutinised by not one of the top 3 putting a stamp on the Premier League as yet.
The relegation battle immediately relates back to the 2005 relegation battle where it wasn't until the last day with who was definitely going down and the same heroics are going to have to be displayed this time round on the last weekend. With anyone of 6 teams still down there unfortunately the heroics shown early on in the season by Blackpool seem to have dwindled off into what now seems a distant fairytale, can Ian Holloway prove himself as a Premier League manager and rally his troops? Can Avram Grant muster up a team-talk like Scott Parker did at half-time against West Brom to spring a great recovery? So many questions will be asked of these relegation-threatened managers and with those who succeed will come those who don't and have to face the pain of leaving the Premier League.
But for whoever does go down this year they can definitely take away that on any other season they most likely would have stayed up.
But that's Football.
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