Footblog

Broken leg fever

Footblog's had a sudden traffic spurt over the past couple of days, thanks to a series of Google gore hunters searching for videos of Jimmy Bullard's broken leg and stumbling across this entry I wrote last year.

What a curious phenomenon. An Arsenal player snaps his leg in such an ugly fashion that even Sky Sports decide to retire the replay machine, and all you soccer snuff movie seekers want to see is if was worse than Jimmy's splintered shin. 

I'm tempted to replace the Jimmy video with a clip of Rachel Stevens cuddling kittens in a bid to restore the national wellbeing. Go about your business, all of you.

Harry happy to talk to MOTD again

In between wincing at Eduardo's snapped pin and laughing at William Gallas's incredible sulk, did anyone notice that Harry Redknapp seems to have dropped his self-imposed embargo on talking to the BBC, after giving a post-match interview to Match of the Day last night?

Has Harry forgiven the BBC for portraying him as particularly partial to a bung? Or has the daft old sod simply forgotten who he's talking to (sycophantic Sky Sports reporters, The Sun and his son) and who he isn't (anyone who asks where the money went)?

Tough competition for Miss Millwall 2008

The brave souls at WakeupMillwall.com are searching for "Millwall's HOTTEST female fan" on Facebook. Judging by the current standard of entries, they may have to rename the site WouldntWannaWakeUpWithThat.com.

Benitez here to stay after Barnsley blaze of glory

Rafael Benitez before losing 2-1 at home to Barnsley:

"They [Hicks and Gillette] don't understand what the transfer window means in Europe. They need to understand how difficult it is to sign players. I was trying to explain, now we try to keep focus and win games. They need to know and understand how to sign players who are free, that we have to do it early and quickly. They need to understand the way the market works”.

Rafael Benitez after losing 2-1 at home to Barnsley:

"I have been working (as a coach) for 21 years now. I have good memories and bad memories. But my commitment to this club is 100%. We need to keep going. It's the only way we're going to change things."

Headline of the week

(If Football365.com actually intended it - which is highly doubtful)

GRANT CONFIDENT FAT FRANK WON'T BE MOVING

Shirty Sanchez

Lawrie Sanchez's opinion of himself is higher than the balls his centre backs used to hoof into the box.

"I undertook what was perhaps the biggest rebuilding of a Premier Club that's ever been attempted," he claims in The Guardian.

Sir Alex and Arsene were merely tweaking the winning formulas laid down by Big Ron and Bruce Ricoh, of course. Whereas replacing a squad of Premiership players with lower-league Northern Irish cloggers - that takes real expertise. And, luckily, we won't have to wait long to see the kind of managerial magic that results in two wins from 17 games again.

I'm open to everything but I consider myself a Premiership manager," he says.

Shame nobody else does...

How not to get picked for England

I can't imagine that an England manager who's banned flip-flops and makes players wear blue shirts to dinner, is going to be particularly impressed with Robert Green's gloves at the weekend.

NO TO GAM£ 39 PETITION

I'm sure the likes of the Glazer, Hicks and Shinawatra gave more thought to what colour pants they're wearing this morning than what their clubs' fans would think of the ludicrous idea of turning the Premiership into a travelling circus (complete with its own clowns if Titus Bramble and Paul Robinson are still Premiership players in 2010).

The Football Supporters' Federation says the "time for football  fans to stand up and be counted has arrived". I think the fact that we pay as much as £60 to sit down and watch our teams every week means we should have been counted in the first place.

That said, Footblog urges everyone to sign the petition on the FSF's website and is damn keen on the idea of organising protests at every Premiership ground. I'd personally like to see every single fan stand in silence and turn their back on the game for a minute after kick-off to symbolise the death of the game. Any other ideas?   

All hail Arseblog

The ever-perceptive and relentlessly brilliant Arseblog on the Premier League's planned travelling circus:

"I’m sure you’ve read that all 20 Premier League clubs have unanimously agreed to explore the possibility of a ‘foreign round’ of top flight games. This would mean adding a fixture to the calendar, having cities bid for them, then the clubs go and play. Frankly, they should explore the depths of my anus, the fucking c***s [we share the sentiment, but this is a family show - Footblog].

To say this is the most ill-conceived, badly thought-out, preposterous notion in the history of English football is not going quite far enough. I hate this idea. The obvious problem is that 20 teams = 38 games per season, not 39. How do they fairly decide who plays who? Imagine relegation or the title being decided by this one round of games which has no sporting value whatsoever. It’s a money making machine. Honestly, if Arsenal fans abroad want to see Arsenal play either wait for a pre/post season tour or save up and come to London. Simple as that. Making the league a travelling circus is a fucking disaster, if you ask me, and while we’re only at the proposal stage it’s a shame not one club had the balls to stand up against it.

It’s a shameful way to behave. Somebody is waving a carrot and all the clubs are like donkeys, addicted to carrot donkeys. Carrotoholics. I realise there’s a lot of money to be made but there really is more to football than money. Wait, that’s stupid. There obviously isn’t these days and it’s very, very sad."

Read Footblog's slightly less venomous take on the issue here.

Burgers or Brom? Burgers it is.

West Brom striker John Hartson on why he's decided to hang up his boots mid-season:

"I have been fighting my weight for 12 years. I can't have a burger without putting on half a stone." 

Anyone spot the obvious solution? No, don' t tell him...