Shut it Sam! April 21, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Football, Latest News.Tags: Blackburn, Bolton, Celebration, Fulham, Gesture, Liverpool, Newcastle, Rafa Benitez, Sam Allardyce
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I have a lot of time for Sam Allardyce, usually. I admired his work at Bolton to the point of utterly despairing of the fact that we had to face his team twice a season – they invariably had the measure of Liverpool for a couple of seasons. I felt he was harshly treated by both the board and fans of Newcastle United and that feeling that he was on a hiding to nothing filtered down to the players. He was not given enough of a chance to establish himself at that club. He has since moved on to Blackburn where, admittedly, he has struggled, although he will need to be given time and space there too. He’s obviously a thorough manager with a strong work ethic and commands strong respect from his teams.
However, Sam has got to stop acting like a spoilt little child. His Blackburn got roundly trounced by Liverpool a couple of weeks ago. Sam does not like Rafa Benitez. And so he threw a tantrum. He seized on something little and has tried to make a huge issue of it. I invite you to watch the video below:
Now, Big Sam claims that Rafael Benitez gestured to him, smirking, indicating that the game was over, no hope now that Blackburn had conceded their second goal. What Rafa says – and what seems far, FAR more likely, looking at the evidence – is that he was joking with his players who had scored a goal despite completely ignoring his instructions from the touchline. There is a “never mind”, a wry shrug about him. And Sam, he’s not even looking at you – that technical area at Anfield is small, and he’s clearly following the movement of the players on the pitch back to halfway.
Rafa Benitez has never let Liverpool Football Club down in his manner. He is someone who focuses entirely during matches, constantly barking orders to the team, gesturing and instructing. I think you would be hard pressed to find a clip of him even interacting with an opposition manager during a game. He has begun to relax a bit more on the touchline recently however, celebrating a crucial win at Fulham, cracking the occasional smile like this one. If Sam Allardyce paid more attention to the shambolic defence of his team, if he had tried sending a striker out against Liverpool instead of poor old Christopher Samba, perhaps he might not have had to witness the “insulting” joy of his opposite number enjoying a goal scored. If you don’t like someone Sam, fine. But you don’t have to lie to try and play the victim when you’ve simply been proven inadequate.
Email, She Wrote April 20, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Life.Tags: Email She Wrote, Emails, Funny
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Anyone who wants a good laugh and doesn’t find anything laugh-worthy in my blog, please do feel free to visit the very very hilarious “Email, She Wrote” at emailshewrote.wordpress.com – their link is on my blogroll. They have written some very funny, entertaining and, at times, helpful emails to many unsuspecting targets from many unsuspecting people’s email accounts. Be careful not to leave yourself logged in anywhere, because they are watching and waiting…
Update April 16, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Football, Latest News.Tags: Hillsborough, Martin Kelner, The Guardian
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As of 11:42 – nearly 24 hours after posting – my comment on Martin Kelner’s piece of misguided and uninformed vitriol in The Guardian has not been ratified and put on the comment board. The truth hurts, eh Martin?
We’ll Never Forget, You’ll Never Walk Alone April 16, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Football, Latest News.Tags: Alan Hansen, Anfield, BBC, Bernard Murray, Brian Clough, David Duckenfield, England, FA CUp, Guus Hiddink, Hillsborough, Hillsborough Disaster, Justice For The 96, Kelvin MacKenzie, Liverpool, Martin Kelner, Match Of The Day, Memorial, Norman Bettison, Ray Stubbs, South Yorkshire Police, The Guardian, The Premier League, The Sun, The Taylor Report, You'll Never Walk Alone
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I am so proud of my football team, both for its displays onfield and off. Today marked the 20th Anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool Football Club supporters at an FA Cup Semi Final on April 15th 1989. The memorial service at Anfield today was intensely moving – “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is a strongly emotive song on its own, but gains new poignancy when sung so passionately, so proudly in this context. There have been so many words written, both in sorrow and anger, commemorating the tragic incidents surrounding the events of that awful day, asking more questions than they answer. Mine are no greater than any of those already written. However, it is with regret that I direct you to this article by Martin Kelner in The Guardian.
I was so appalled by his attitude towards the will to remember Hillsborough, and especially by his ignorance of the unresolved matters surrounding the disaster that I felt compelled to reply to it. In this age of the web, letters to the editor are rather wasted, so I left a comment on the internet page. I have pasted the reply below. It is the ignorance of men like these, like Brian Clough who is being so celebrated right now yet who said “I will always remain convinced that those Liverpool fans who died were killed by Liverpool people” in the wake of the tragedy, like Kelvin MacKenzie who edited The Sun at the time and who published lies, fictions and slanders under the headline “THE TRUTH” simply to try sell newspapers, it is men like these who cause the misunderstanding about Hillsborough and who damn the memory of those who died. How dare they. Today is a day to remember those who died and to reinforce the need for Justice For The 96. You’ll Never Walk Alone.
I read this article while on a visit to England and felt compelled to make a comment, something I would never normally do. I found this utterly distasteful, a chance to have a go at the BBC and MOTD for doing what they HAD to do – commemorate Hillsborough – and then returning to what they are SUPPOSED to do – show football highlights. I second the comment below which points out that the words “crucial” and “vital” were within a completely different frame of reference to the type of “importance” Hansen and Stubbs mentioned. To criticise the panel for a joke about Hiddink’s accent is like criticising a funeral-goer for making a crack about the deceased: it happens, because we must always remember the dead, but not wallow. We try to go on as best we can. It was wholly appropriate to reflect on Hillsborough, it was a difficult subject and it is hardly voyeurism if someone is willing to share their grief in order to help us understand.
However, I take most issue with this paragraph:
Eh? The question might have been relevant 20 years ago, but we sort of know what happened after Hillsborough. The Taylor Report led to all-seater stadiums, people not getting crushed on terraces, the Premier League, prawn sandwiches, and poor people being priced out of live matches. And obviously those responsible for the hideous policing errors that contributed to the tragedy were prosecuted to the full extent of the law, or were retired on full pension and advised to keep very schtum indeed. I cannot quite remember.
We DO NOT know what happened after Hillsborough given that the final chapter has not been written. There has never been a full official apology for the police’s behaviour before, during and after the disaster. The original inquest into the deaths gave a verdict of “accidental death”, only examining the evidence up to 3:15, not taking into account the police reactions such as obstructing people carrying the injured from the scene.
However, most damning of all is your total ignorance of the legal issues. Those responsible for the hideous policing errors have NEVER been prosecuted to the full extent of the law. David Duckenfield, the Chief Superintendent on duty, and another officer, Bernard Murray, saw the private prosecution against them abandoned when Duckenfield was deemed medically unfit to face trial. He then retired with his full police pension. It became clear during the trial that several officers had lied, including Duckenfield. Duckenfield had backed up the stories which were leaked from within South Yorkshire police and used in the infamous <i>Sun</i> articles about the tragedy. Utter lies for which they – and Kelvin MacKenzie – have never apologised. Another officer, Norman Bettison, who was one of several to manipulate his evidence, later was appointed Chief Constable of Merseyside.
To flippantly dismiss all this as you did, to display your paltry knowledge of the events surrounding the Hillsborough disaster and afterwards, to use the memorials of the events to attack the BBC – that is distasteful, cynical and insensitive. It is this sort of ignorance which the Justice For The 96 and other campaigns continue to fight against. I live in Ireland, I was just 4 when Hillsborough occurred yet, as a Liverpool fan, it is a deeply distressing subject. If you want to write about something like this, you would do well to do your research properly, not simply allow yourself to “not quite remember” when this is the time everyone should be remembering.
We Stoop To Conquer April 14, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Rugby.Tags: Brian O'Driscoll, Croke Park, Dublin, ELVs, Harlequins, Heineken Cup, Hill 16, Kurt McQuilkin, Leinster, Liverpool, London, Milltown, Munster, Newmarket, Nigel Owens, Rugby, Ryanair, Stansted, The Kop, The Might Quin, The Stoop, Thomond Park, Twickenham, Ugo Monye, Yarmouth
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I’m sure it’s an obvious headline, one which several tabloid journos have probably wheeled out this weekend already in the wake of Leinster’s gritty victory at Harlequins Twickenham Stoop, but give me some leeway. It’s 1.22am and I’m only just in the door having started the day at 8am, driving from London to Yarmouth, back to Newmarket, on to Stansted, taking a delayed Ryanair flight to Dublin and driving across the city to Milltown. And then I had to climb two flights of stairs to get to my bed. The blows just never stop. Anyway, this is a quick post before I drift off, but I felt it should be put out there.
Leinster were superb yesterday. Not in the “scything through defences, bossing every aspect of the game and running away with the game” sense of the word. Certainly not. Harlequins had probably 70% of the possession and territory and won the contest at the breakdown for long periods – although I suspect Nigel Owens contributed to that with some very poor and unbalanced refereering. The sin-binning of Felipe Contempomi was completely incorrect and a total hometown call – he jumped to attempt to block a kick and the Quins’ player ran into him as he landed, yet the referee described the action as “a deliberate step across the man”! -, and Owens’ subsequent failure to bin Ugo Monye for a cynical barge on Brian O’Driscoll as he closed in on the tryline was inexplicable. Nigel Owens is usually a good referee, someone I have a great deal of respect for but he really did Leinster no favours.
No, what I mean when I say that Leinster were superb is that they refused to be broken. Despite the continuous onslaught from Harlequins, despite the referee and despite the away fixture, the line held firm. They conceded one score, a try which HAD to come but only came after 12 unbroken minutes of offense from the English side. The tackling, the cover, the contest of the scrum, lineout and breakdown was committed and disciplined, with every impact felt around the ground. Those daft, suited dinosaurs who dream up ELVs, with their wet dreams of lithe clones springing about the field in an orgy of free-flowing, freewheeling, free-scoring “Rugby-Lite”, were shown yesterday that good old thundering blood-and-guts rugby can be as damn entertaining as any of their fantasy games. Yesterday was a day for the fans who mourn the maul, who admire a wheeled scrum, who take pleasure in the crunching tackled and endless, inch-stealing phases.
Credit should be splashed about liberally. Kurt McQuilkin, Leinster’s defensive coach, did some serious patchwork to transform this team from colander to concrete in the space of a week. It would be unfair to single out any player as every single one of the Leinster side had moments of magic and sheer determination. As with my beloved Liverpool, as with the Munster of the early “Naughties”, they showed that a team need not have the best players to be the better team. They were Munster-esque, doing the travelling crowd of 3,000 proud. And that band of supporters were Munster-esque too, doing their men proud in return.
I was among the group and we sang our hearts and throats out non-stop, at full belt, rarely sitting, bouncing up and down, drowning out the home support. The only moments I ever heard the Quins’ fans were when they scored their try (before the Leinster fans ratcheted the volume up again) and during the playings of “The Mighty Quin” before kick-off and at half-time. This was Thomond Park. This was Hill 16. This was The Kop. The South Stand at Twickenham Stoop became the shrine to Leinster rugby and its devotees were fanatical in their worship. Let’s keep that up. I was delighted and immensely honoured to be part of that group effort yesterday. Let’s keep that 16th man fit and well for Croke Park and give the Munster men the fright of their lives.
Feeling Grand In The Age Of Publicity April 5, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Human Nature, Life.Tags: Blog, Communication, Conversation, Facebook, Jade Goody, MSN, News, Publicity, Skype, The Dark Ages, The Enlightenment, The Renaissance, Twitter
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I passed a little personal landmark on Thursday with my blog passing 1000 views. It’s quite an overwhelming thought, realising that my ramblings and rants, photos and philosophising have attracted 1000 glances. It’s an unusual concept, quantifying those who you have spoken to, those who have taken the time to listen to you. If we did it in our everyday lives, it would be an interesting exercise. From the man who sells you the paper in the newsagents saying ”Here’s your change” to your closest friend pouring their heart out to you during a 2-hour coffee break, we engage in the widest miriad of conversations and confidances over a single day. Now, the capability for this communication is greater than ever thanks to email, MSN, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, comment posts on nearly every website you visit. The news agencies are crying out for our comments, our videos or photos of the latest breaking disasters. Everyone is talking. And more and more people want to listen.
In hundreds of years, who knows what the world will be like, but when the historians of that time look back on our current generation and scramble about for a moniker, like The Dark Ages, The Renaissance, The Enlightenment, they will look at the character of our era. They will see a fascination with celebrity. They will see the new class system whereby ones status is measured not in land ownership but in how recognisable your face is, how many magazine covers you grace, how many chatshows you appear on. They will see the love of sport and the valorisation of acts of sporting heroism over military strength. They will see the shrinking planet as travel has brought us ever closer to the centres of culture, the spots of beauty, to each other.
But perhaps most importantly, they will see the proliferation of forms of communication, of news outlets, of text messaging, of email, of social networking, of blogs. They will see the extraordinary wealth of knowledge which we find at our fingertips and the even more extraordinary desire to share it – not just general knowledge, but personal trivia, musings, secrets and wisdom. They will see the progression from the extraordinary privacy of diaries and a focus on homelife to where we are now: a race which loves to share our stories, to open up, to let people into our inner sancta. It’s a progression which perhaps reached its pinnacle – or perhaps nadir is the word – in the blinding coverage of Jade Goody’s declining health, her wedding, and her ultimate passing. This is a topic which will be analysed, revisited, reviled and revered. Suffice to say that the world was made most painfully aware that the doors into our lives have been blown off the hinges. And so, in the future, I suspect that our time will be judged by that fact. We live in the age of the people. We are the story. From great to small, our lives are public property. This will be called The Age Of Publicity.
April Fools And All That April 1, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Human Nature, Latest News.add a comment
I have to admit, the April Fool Skeptic in me had to do some serious Googling to confirm a few stories: This Conficker worm – never heard of it, and the BBC report had a picture of an actual can of worms, further raising my suspicions, but seems like it’s the real thing, burrowing away inside my machine right now for all I know. Meanwhile, up in that hub of all-year-round fools, St. James’ Park, the appointment of Alan Shearer as manager for the rest of the season just fell on the wrong day for it to be taken at face value. Is it all one big joke? Should they really have appointed Alan Sugar to fire some of their underperforming players? And hats off to the Irish Times for yet again managing to find an anagram for the words APRIL FOOL - FailProof is the name of the American company which the Irish government is supposedly in talks with to manufacture monitoring tags for ”high net worth” tax exiles. Actually, that one isn’t such a bad idea…
Anyway, all this April Fooling becomes a bit tedious, especially when EVERYONE is at it now. A plethora of football teams have claimed to be rebranding, notably Port Vale, who have a new logo remarkably similar to rivals Stoke. The Guardian announced it is to become a Twitter-only service in its ongoing arse-clenchingly pompous and overbearingly smug campaign against a modern form of interaction and networking which it has decided is the greatest social ill the world is currently facing – could they not just pick on migrants like the Express? Miss Universe spent a relaxing 5 days in Guantanamo Bay according to the Independent, BBC Radio 4 had some story about a doughnut-eating gorilla and the Telegraph announced that a new power source for Britain could come from the electricity generated by fish swimming in rivers – according to research from experts in the ”Université de Poisson d’Avril in Paris”. Well done whoever you are in the Telegraph who speaks French and knows their phrase for April Fool.
The thing about today is, of course, that you get suspicious of EVERY story. The Shearer one is a prime example. Apparently Djibril Cisse was arrested outside a lap-dancing bar yesterday – he’s a fool if ever there was one. I genuinely had my reservations about Botox being cited as a treatment for depression (still do, to be honest) until I saw it in two separate sources. Everywhere you look, you see the potential follow-up to the “Dual Carriageway Through Phoenix Park” hoax which RTE’s Mooney programme carried off so brilliantly last year.
April Fools can be funny, can raise a smile, but it wears a bit thin when, as I mentioned, everyone is doing it. And just for the sake of it. If there’s going to be an April Fool’s story, could you at least put some effort in? The Guardian offering is as pathetic as they come. The best practical jokes are those which the victim can look back on and admit to a certain degree of admiration at the planning, committment and execution – I once hid for over an hour in a wardrobe in order to scare a family member. Not exactly Ocean’s 11-esque planning, but the total focus on the goal made it worthwhile.
As for me, well, I’m not feeling all that well. I’ve retired to bed for the day. I will shortly be tested for rabies before being sent to a leper colony on Uranus where I will be the 1 millionth arrival to the planet and thus heralded as the Messiah by all the other sick and deformed inhabitants.
Gotcha. Now, if only Ireland could trick Italy into thinking we’re better than them at football…
