Wednesday 4 February 2009

Elfin legend of Zenit

Arshavin signed after all.

Perhaps he decided you can make a decent go of it for wages of 3.75 million after all.

Monday 2 February 2009

Elfin legend of Zenit

Andre Arshavin will not be playing for Arsenal this season. A source close to Arshavin has said- and I quote- "life in England is more expensive – a car, a house, it's all more expensive in London, and he has to bring his family. He has one kid who is three years old, another who is one year old. It's ridiculous." Yes, ridiculous. How can anyone be expected to live on 3.75 million pounds a year (especially with sterling so low now)? It is simply ridiculous.

Liverpool 'luckier' than other teams: Its Official

The sports science department at Portsmouth Uni have been doing a very interesting study. They have been analysing the refereeing decisions made during premiership games over the last ten years, and made a series of graphs that measure whether the correct decision was made (according to the majority decision of a panel of amateur ref's who support all Premiership teams watching the games without commentary). The aim is to see whether some teams enjoy good or bad luck regards refereeing decisions. Unsurprisingly to anyone who has watched Liverpool recently, and seen the array of dreadful decisions normally in their favour, Liverpool come out as offically the "luckiest" team in the premiership; and by some margin. They were measured as a staggering 11.8% "luckier" than other teams who have competed in the premiership.

Isn't science brilliant?!

This of course puts Benitez' rants into perspective. Rafa doesn't need to moan about poor refereeing decisions as much as other managers- because his side are more often than not at the fortunate end of the poor decisions!

For your interest most the luck is pretty evenly spread among the other teams. With the so called Big 4 on avergage about 3.7% more fortunate than the lesser gods. Within the margin of error. this did however rise to significant 5.2% for hoime fixtures. Read the results as you will.

Relegated teams were about 0.5% unluckier than those that survied the season, which goes to prove that the fickle lady luck does have a big say on our fortunes after all.

and who were unluckiest teams- both Sheffield United and Ipswich Town came off badly- 4% worse off than their rivals (on average) the seasons they were relegated.

Whether the results of this study will be taken at all seriously by the sport's governing bodies remains to be seen.

Guest Post

A guest post from football betting guru 'Tom Mallows'. At least someone now gets paid for writing on this blog. (probably)

In fairness to Tom the article ain't bad at all.

Window shopping.

There is no denying it; the media love the January transfer window.
What would normally be a dull, chilly winters day is transformed into a frenetic dash for players. Agents and chief executives race across Europe to finalise those last minute deals, medicals are going on all over the place, and football betting goes into overdrive as numerous superstar footballers are “spotted” at grounds across the country.
Or so we are led to believe.
Sky are the best at it. They have reporters stationed at stadiums and training grounds across the country bringing the “latest breaking news” (they love that little yellow “Breaking News” bar that scrolls along the bottom of the screen) and even an agent in the studio with two mobile phones on the desk. Its pure theatre designed to keep us watching, and it works. Sky Sports News are masters at making stories when there is nothing going on and could happily fill hours of air time of Bryan Swanson telling us that Andrei Arshavin still hasn’t signed for Arsenal
But what if you are at work and can’t watch the action unfold? Well don’t worry the BBC website has a clock watch where any old Tom Dick or Harry can text in with their transfer scoop: “My brother’s girlfriend’s uncle works at Old Trafford and he has just seen Kaka in the club shop....” you get the picture. In fact I’m sure I remember Jermaine Defoe finding himself at four places at once on one transfer deadline day.
One thing that bothers me though is why try and do it all on the last day? There is something very British about waiting till the last minute to do something, like it is an after thought and you’ve been putting it off for weeks. It’s the footballing equivalent of dashing out on Christmas Eve to get the wife a present, all the stuff she wanted is gone but you hope that because what you get is expensive and gift wrapped she will like it.
Talking of things costing enough step forward Man City. Last’s summers transfer window was turned completely on its head when the Arabs stepped in and started throwing money around. Kaka,Torres,Terry, the names all trickled along that yellow ticker, getting City fans more and more excited. Little did they know that Wayne Bridge and Craig Bellamy would be the highlight of their winter spending.
Love it or hate it the one thing that the window and the Sky’s hype does provide is hope - The one thing a football fan could not survive without. Even if their club’s season is going down the toilet they cling to the hope that the rumour about David Villa is true and their team can somehow magic millions out of thin air, beat the football odds and clinch a dramatic window-busting signing.
Most of it is, of course, rubbish. Once the window slams shut we will all go back to work tomorrow and a sense of normality will return.
But for one day, we can sit with our fingers crossed and pray that the beautiful Georgie Thompson and her team of transfer hunters can deliver us that dream signing.....

Saturday 3 January 2009

Mark Hughes has clearly been

eying the growing dole queues (95,000 and counting) in his native Wales with perverse envy. Robinho et al have clearly been on the sauce this new year. Man city 0 Notts Forest 3. No joke.

Stack your giant killing cliches here:

A Giant Killer came from the Forest this New year in Manchester

Not since the days have Brian Clough have the Forest fans beenin dreamland....

OK though- it is this sort of result, unexpected, unpredictable, stained with the impossible, that makes football worthwhile sometimes.

Monday 29 December 2008

Feliz Navidad

our somewhat random Christmas observations

Johnny Evans has been playing. This presumably means, he wasn't allegedly raping anyone at this year's Man U Christmas party.

Stevie Gerrard has been arrested, after allegedly bar brawling. He claims it was a fancy dress party and he was going as Joey Barton.

Monday 22 December 2008

Madrid replace Diarra

Real Madrid have replaced holding midfielder Mahmoud Diarra with holding midfielder Diarra. Diarra has been struggling this season so his replacement of Diarra is seen as a natural choice. Real Madrid however deny that replacing Diarra with Diarra is a like for like measure. Diarra himself says "I do not want to be known as Diarra number 1 or Diarra number 2. Just call me Lass."

The two Diarra's situation has been a source of confusion for some time.