Light relief

Some sterling work from Joachim "Jogi luuuuurve" Loew in the press today. We all remember Jogi right? He's the coach of the German national team and the king of knitwear. Asked about rumours that he wears a wig, this is how he responded:
"I've heard that before too. Rubbish. You're welcome to tug on it. There is so much mischief made. I suppose it's part of my job."

Stellar quote sir.


image source

The end of a Dream

Well it looks like our title hopes are pretty much dashed. There could be some sort of miracle (which I will continue to hope for) but pragmatically speaking our part in the race is run.
Nevermind, there's always next year. Its pretty hard tto say but its also true. The past few weeks have been extremely difficult causing me no end of stress and actual heart-rending pain. BUT overall its been a pretty good season. I've been pretty damn proud of those boys a lot of the time and a little blip at the end of the season isn't going to change that. So with that in mind, I'm looking back over the season at moments of improvement and reasons to be cheerful for next season.

A stressful couple of days

Well my beloved team had two important games in four days. Liverpool on Sunday and Spurs yesterday. My stress levels have now gone through the roof. I've waited till now to wrute the blog as now I can be a little more even handed in my review. There's plenty of controversy to keep us all going, so what are we waiting for?

Birthday Poles

Today is a very very special day. Not one but two amazing people were born today. Our poles in the goal, Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski celebrate their birthdays today. Lukasz turns twenty six while the boy Chesney turns 21. So we'd like to say Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin to them both.

source (Woj)    source (fab)

St Stephane's Day

It's come to my attention that I forgot to celebrate St Stephane's day. Well here we are ten days late. Happy Late ST Stephane's Day everyone! The official day is the 2nd of April but feel free to celebrate today. Its a celebration of the birth of the prince charming of the ice Mr Stephane Lambiel. How do you celebrate this magical day I hear you ask? Well some interpretive dancing is always a good idea, be sure to flick your hair lots, wear a waistcoat if you can or some knitwear, listen to something by Damien Rice (one of his favourites), watch a movie with Leonardo di aprio in it (ditto) and wave a Swiss flag. Or just stare at the aesthetic perfection of St Stephane of course......

Also feel free to extend the celebration by watching the World figure skating championships in Moscow starting April 24th!

More like it

The title says is all. THAT boys is more like it. Not only was the game a well-deserved victory and timely morale boost but it marked the competitive return of 'Crazy' Jens Lehmann. Wooooooooooooo.

European thoughts - Serie A and Uefa cup

I've been lucky enough to catch some pretty good European matches lately. Firstly I watched the Milan derby, which was a cracker. I'm a big fan of AC Milan so its really lovely to see them doing well again. It was fantastic to see Gianluca Zambrotta playing and playing well. And Clarence Seedorf. Its a well known fact about me that I love a verteran old campaigner and this is partly why I love Milan so much. It fills my heart full of joy to see all the players I've grown up watching still going strong. So I'm praying so hard for one of my very very favourite people to recover from his knee injury. The man they call SuperPippo. Everytime I watch Milan and he isn't playing I feel a little twinge. I think I'm going to have full on hysterics when he *whisper it* retires. Another thought that occurred to me during the derby was about Robinho. I think he is suffering from what we in the business call "Nicklas Bendtner syndrome." He displayed all the symptoms, terrible first touch, reluctance to pass to teammates and skying chances. As my dad said "its a pity Robinho isn't as talented as he thinks he is."

Then the other day I watched Porto in the Europa league. What a game. What a side. I really like the look of Andre Villas Boas as a manager; he's young, he's got his team playing lovely free flowing football, he has swagger and he's a snappy dresser. And boy are his team impressive. Time and time again they swept majestically down the pitch, what a pleasure it is to watch them. And Radamel Falcao in particular. He scored a hat-trick on the night and it was a stellar performance. Plus he's so beautiful. Like breath-taking. Look

Jerez GP - Crashes, hissy fits and comedy falls

Now that is how to start the season with a bang. This weekend's race had absolutely everything you could ask for and hopefully is just a taster of what we're going to get this season. So without further ado, let's dive right in.