Ipswich Win in Cardiff
Phew! Two late goals, but they did it, by two to one.
Apparently, we had a bit of luck. About time to!
Delia Goes up in My Estimation
As an Ipswich supporter, I’m not a fan of Delia Smith, because of her Norwich connections.
But she did go up in my estimation on Thursday, when she was promoting her new book and talking about football in League One on Radio 5 Live. She made the statement that she’d rather go to Hartlepool than Chelsea to support Norwich. She also said she had nothing against the fans of Chelsea, but that she had to wait for an hour before she could leave because of the security surrounding Abramovich and his entourage.
If I was the Chairman of a football club and they had treated me like that, then I wouldn’t go.
Roy Keane on Ireland-France
Roy Keane was very blunt about Ireland on the BBC yesterday. There’s a video on the link, but here’s some of what he said.
France were there for the taking and Ireland didn’t do it. Same old story.
If I’d been there in the dressing room after the game, I wouldn’t be talking about the handball. I’d focus on why the defenders didn’t clear it. They should’ve cleared it.
I’d be more annoyed with my defenders and my goalkeeper than Thierry Henry. How can you let the ball bounce in your six-yard box? How can you let Thierry Henry get goal-side of you? If the ball goes into the six-yard box, where the hell is my goalkeeper?
He has a point, but there is one point that no-one has made in the media.
I play real tennis a lot and like anybody who plays these sort of games, you play to where the ball lands. So if you know if an opponent’s serve is going out, you never run for it. It’s the same in football. Does a goalkeeper jump if the ball is going two metres over the bar? Of course not!
I have not seen a shot of the face of Shay Given, but did he think that Thierry Henry’s handball was so blatant that the referee would blow his whistle? So he didn’t go for the ball as it came back across the goal.
So perhaps the real fault of the Irish team was that they didn’t play to the whistle.
Never Trust the French
The Irish seem to have taken their defeat by the “Hand of Henri” very well.
But it just shows how even nice Frenchmen can be sneaky!
Egypt v Algeria
This seems to be one of those football matches with more aggravation than a river full of crocodiles.
You can watch it on Eurosport at 17:30 in the UK. They are three hours ahead of us.
Was Robert Enke a Coeliac?
When I heard of the sad death of Robert Enke, the German goalkeeper, I wondered if his depression was caused by being a coeliac. Note that one of the symptoms of coeliac disease is depression, because your brain doesn’t get all the vitamins it needs. All top class sportsmen are fit and extremely well-monitored for any small health problem. They also often take high-pasta diets to improve stamina.
There have been several cases of top-class sportsman suffering depression and other similar problems, when they appear to have everything going for them.
I would never have posted this question, but someone found this blog, by typing “Robert Enke Coeliac” into a search engine. So I’m not the only person who thinks that this might possibly have been his problem. Note that I said might and I’m only speculating.
It should also be said, that if one in a hundred of the UK population is a coeliac, why is Hayley Turner, the very successful jockey, the only known coeliac?
The Death of Robert Enke
Robert Enke was Germany’s leading goal-keeper.
But he committed suicide by throwing himself under a train yesterday.
Why?
Last night, a program by Rosa Monckton was shown on BBC1. It was all about the pressures of caring for disabled children. It was heartrending and my late wife and I count ourselves lucky, that we didn’t suffer more than the odd teenage problems with ours.
Robert and his wife, had a child with a severe heart problem, who died in 2006.
My wife was a family barrister and she had seen many times how such a set of circumstances could destroy a family. She felt that very few ever survived intact.
Even one as successful and financially secure as Robert Enke.
My thoughts go out to his family and friends.
St. James’s Park
Newcastle United play at St. James’s Park in Newcastle. Or they did? But now they play at sportsdirect.com@St. James’s Park, as the stadium has been rebranded.
My first thought when I heard this was a very practical one. In the days of fast sports news on a Saturday afternoon, when the call is something like, “Over to Alan at Old Trafford!”, would they really say “Over to Alan at sportsdirect.com@St. James’s Park”? No! They’d either use St. James’s Park or just Newcastle.
So Mike Ashley won’t be getting many bangs for his bug.
But he has spawned a lot of humour in the press. Here’s the piece from The Times.
It puzzles me how a man, who obviously has talent to produce a multi-billion pound business, can make such a simple mistake.
One Law for Footballers and One for Everybody Else
I’ve just heard Marlon King‘s agent saying how disgraceful it was that his client was immediately sacked by Wigan Athletic. He certainly believes in the title of this post. Nearly all people going to jail will find that their job suddenly doesn’t exist.
I’m afraid that those who break the law should expect all the punishment they get. And if you read Marlon King‘s entry in Wikipedia, you’ll find that he has not been totally innocent in the past. So in my view after King was found guilty, the sentence was fair. My late wife might well have argued that he needed a few months more.
The agent’s defence of his client was loyal, but contained little else of merit.
The Anonymous Widower 