October 2008 Archives

Now you can see me in my natural environment!This was shot recently when the guys from the Sunday Mercury dropped into our offices with the winner of the 'Win a Day at Kerrang' competition....

Firstly, I apologise for this week's blog being quite short and sharp, but I am having one of the busiest weeks on ever!

On the sport front, my main feelings this week have been towards the once great Tottenham Hotspur, and those feelings are not of sympathy, nor of charitable intentions, oh no...............I'm laughing!!

As an Arsenal fan, each year you expect the other team in North London's supporters to get excited, every year they seem to be getting better, and with the signings they made over the summer, and with their "Saviour" Juande Ramos at the helm, all my so called mates who wear the white top were lording it over me in the summer!

They all thought with Modric, Bentley, and Dos Santos, they would finally become the bigger club in the area, and surpass the years of work that Wenger has put into developing and building the current squad.

Hahahahahahaha is all I can say! (I know that's harsh, but it is funny!) With 2 points from 8 games, they have recorded their worst start to the football league since........well ever. There signings have not settled, their strike force is about as threatening as Mrs Doubtfire, and the morale is at an all time low.

In the interest of fair play, normally I would analyse why this is, and talk about how they can improve, but for once, I am simply going to enjoy it, and long may it continue!

Now to explain why I am so hectic this week! Yesterday I was down at RAF Honiton in Bury ST Edmunds taking a couple of lucky Kerrang winners down to fire some guns on the range, and then do the assault course.

Wow, what a day, not only did I have so much fun, I kicked ass at the assault course (even if the first time round my vertigo did kick in kind of ruining my macho image as I had to hold the hand of the instructor on the 10m beam, by the time we did the proper run I nailed it!), met some very cool people and more importantly they let me keep the flight suit, that I am still wearing now!

Today I am just about to shoot off to the gym, then I am off to spend the day with our Sunday Mercury winner to show him the day in the life of a radio presenter(eat, sleep, talk etc) and hang out with the Pigeon Detectives who are doing a Live at Kerrang session.

Next week I hopefully won't be too crazy so I can get back to my normal blogage!!

England, Booing and why we love a moan!

There is nothing quite like an England football game to get the nation moaning, honestly, with the credit crunch, global warming and the terror threat, you'd think we would have enough to be concerned about, but no, still there is nothing as good as a bit of pessimistic National team bashing!

If being miserable were an Olympic sport, we would undoubtedly have more gold medals in it than Michael Phelps could fit in his Speedos!

Before the match, the talk was not about whether we could build upon our amazing start to the campaign, not about our boy wonder Theo Walcott, but about whether Lampard and Gerrard could play together, and constant reminders that as fans we need to cheer our boys on!!

When the game finally did kick off, I thought Capello's 4-3-3 was not such a bad formation, sure we didn't have many chances, but we looked comfortable, and when playing minnows, it's all about patience. After half time, the Italian changed to a 4-4-2 formation, which yielded 5 goals, but it must be said, without Lampard or Gerrard playing that holding midfield role, we did look exposed in front of the back four. But we won...........easily............lest we forget that! Now let's address those moaning issues.

So I wrote my column on Sunday about how Villa's game with Chelsea's would be a great way to see how far Martin O'Neill's side have come to breaking into the elusive, magical, and impregnable top four. I really wanted Villa to win, but oh my goodness, at times on Sunday afternoon it was like boys against men, Chelsea eventually running out 2-0 winners, but they could have and should have had more.
So what does this mean for a Villa side with Champions league aspirations?

Well first up you have to admit, that they are a very good side, but the difference between themselves and Scholari's men was vast at the weekend, Chelsea are world class in all departments, and while I can see Curtis Davies turning a top English defender in the future, it must be said, compared to Chelsea's unknown fill in at the back Ivanovic, he looked about as confident and as assured as Gordon Brown. So work still do be done for Villa, but with O'Neill at the helm, you can actually see them taking this result and coming back stronger, and it will be interesting to see how the big clubs do at Villa Park.

So how about the other team I tipped to break the monopoly at the top Man City? Well they fared much better, going 2-0 ahead against Liverpool at Eastlands, and looking good, but after a red card, they were witness to an incredible Reds fight back, which should go some way to re affirming their title ambitions.

Man City do look good, but at the moment, they are more a collective of extremely talented individuals, while Liverpool showed that they can play much better as a team, and you know it's going to be your day when even Dirk "I like running, but I couldn't hit the white cliffs of Dover" Kuyt hits the back of the net. So the moral of the story? Billions may allow you to knock on the door of the big boys, but until you can get the most out of your players as a collective, you're simply not going to be let in!