The Lair

ManU, that’s who. Oh all right, I wanted the uber rich Abramovich to get his (in a perverse socialistic desire to level the playing field, possibly) and my desire has been sated. Of course, there is speculation that Roman may have lost interest in his blue clad toys and will sell off his interest. Just speculation, though. I’m probably not alone in agreeing that he got a good deal for his money. It was vaguely amusing to watch the Mancunians cheering on Arsenal too.

The season. Ah well. I’ve mentioned earlier that Reading are the team of the season for me. Berbatov was (probably) one of the better signings.

Arsenal? Forgettable. As Lee Dixon summed up last night, “we need a goal scorer, someone in midfield and someone at the back”. That’s like an entire team, then. The Henry dependence has been found out this season and I really don’t think the backline has recovered from the loss of both Sol Campbell and Cashley. Be that as it may, Julio might be heading back to Real Madrid and we’ll probably be getting Reyes back… An eventuality which fills me with some dread (even if our boy Baptista does seem a bit clumsy at times). Even more distressing is the slowing down of Jens… earlier he was crazy (in a staring eyes, foam-at-corners-of-mouth sort of way) but a great goalkeeper. Now he’s just uh.. crazy. He doesn’t even yell at the backline much any more.

Chelsea lost it because none of their signings really fired for them. Schevchenko? Fizzled. No, goals against non-league opposition don’t count. Yes, he’s displayed flashes of brilliance (that looked-like-a-cross-gone-wrong-but-ended-up-at-the-back-of-the-net goal, for instance) but not enough to justify the number of times he’s started. Ballack? spent a lot of time whining and stamping his foot petulantly at the referee, but not a whole lot more. Khalid the Cannibal? Bwahahahaha. He got eaten alive. The only one of the four signings that was worth the money was Kalou. By direct contrast, Henrik Larsson stepped on the field and owned all for Man U.

Actually. Why am I rabbitting on like this? Because (among other things), it’s patently obvious that predicting the winners of the premier league season isn’t an easy job, even for the experts at MotD. *grin*. The phrase “your guess is as good as mine” comes to mind. I don’t know enough about Euro football to critique this piece though - although complaints about the brutal, rugbyesque style English premier league football have been around for ages.

Bangladesh do a number on the Saffers. Sorry, I shouldn’t be generalizing but the words one dimensional and bullies seem fairly accurate to describe the South Africans so I can’t say I’m altogether unhappy. Not entirely dissimilar to West Ham doing a number on Arsenal. Said it before, say it again - the Gunners play nice football and I will always be a fan but their ability to be sunk at the death by lower rated and lesser teams is … depressing and all too familiar. If it’s not Zamora, then it’s Marlon Harewood. If it’s not Harewood, it will be someone like Kevin Nolan or Anelka. Or Benni McCarthy. I could go on and name more names but this is getting worse than depressing.

Of as much importance, Pompey shocked Manyoo. You stupid Mancunian gits. This had better not cost you the title, by gawd.

Right. Sporting bile dispensed with. I’m not even sparing a thought for the Masters that I was watching this weekend because meh. Tiger lost.

The odds on a subcontinental team winning the Cricket World Cup got a bit shorter, didn’t they? Oh my. I wish I cared more, honestly I do but there were other, more compelling sporting activities happening yesterday.

Ireland were pipped by France to the six nations title. To be honest, I thought the ref for the France/Scotland game (south african?) was pretty fricking awful. He farcically sinbinned the wrong Scottish player for a late tackle and the way he posed the question about the final injury time try made it very difficult for the TV ref to overturn it. Also, the guy scoring the injury time try for France was named Elvis. Remember the name, people. Elvis. Then again, the Irish also had a few forward passes in their tries against the Italians, so it’s all fair. Maybe. Ireland then made up for the lack of St. Patrick’s sporting cheer by mugging Pakistan in cricket. I’m sure the majority in the green isle won’t give a damn about the cricket but meh. Small consolation.

Everytime I write off the French rugby union team, they either sink further into the cesspool of imbecilic play or they turn shit around and kick the stuffing out of their opponents. I’m going to give up trying to predict what they’ll do next. Just like Arsenal in the Premier League, truth be told.

A heretic mails to inform me that his pick for the Cricket WC semifinalists are SL, WI, Aus and SA. He forgot NZ, the follower of the false prophet. He also forgot Bangladesh and Ireland.