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Monday 30 January 2012

Role Models.

Yesterday’s tennis match, perhaps the greatest one i’ve ever seen (Federer v Nadal in the Wimbledon final of 2008 comes close), showed not only what great athletes Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are, but what great people they are as well.

Contrast that to the news today that footballer Lee Hughes has been charged with sexual assault. Maybe his stupid goal celebration was not enough to charm this particular lady he was after. Add this to his 6 year prison sentence for killing a man through dangerous driving, and then running off afterwards, and you realise that this is not a man who kids should be idolising. He will probably be idolised by murderers in jail for his footballing ability, but who cares about that.

John Terry, the England captain, cheated on his wife with his mates ex-girlfriend. He’s also been involved in other misdemeanours, including the current racism trial he is embroiled in. In my opinion, this is not the sort of person children should be looking up to. Likewise, Ashley Cole. Someone who cheats on Cheryl Cole should not be appreciated by anyone, for they clearly have faulty judgement. There are many other footballers that can come into this category (and yes, there are good role model footballers too).

In rugby, the gentlemen’s game (where gentlemen beat each other up and stand on people when they are on the floor), Delon Armitage has today been arrested for assault. Earlier in the month, Danny Care was stopped by police for drink-driving. He will not be considered for selection for some time for the England squad, and his club side Harlequins have made him take part in community projects, as well as fining him. A punishment, but parents of children who idolise the Englishman must be distraught at the damage this has done.

It’s not straight forward; these sport stars do not ask to be role models. Before they became famous they were normal people (I assume), and normal people do bad things (I once forgot all about Mothers Day). Their roles however mean they perform in front of millions of people, and with roles come responsibilities (as i’ve been told numerous times in my life). Young children are so easily influenced by their idols, it is dangerous. Obviously many will grow up and realise that those they used to adore were idiots, but some will see their actions and believe it is ok to do such things. They will grow up drink driving, assaulting women, cheating on their partners, and killing people in car crashes (perhaps not all at once).

So, back to my opening paragraph, and back to a happier note. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic (include Roger Federer in this as well if you like) are some of the top sporting stars in the world, and will go down in history as sporting greats. When was the last time you saw one of the three in the papers for doing something scandalous? They have devoted their lives to being the best at their sport, but win, lose, or draw, they are gracious, free of scandal, family orientated and respectful. Before they say anything about their usually incredible performances, they acknowledge the other player and their team.

At a young age Uncle Tony, Nadal’s coach (and Uncle!), installed into the Spaniard that it is more important to be a good person than a good tennis player. Evidence suggests he has done pretty well at both. Children that grow up with Nadal, Djokovic and Federer as their idols will stand a good chance of turning into decent human beings and play their sport in the correct way. Other sports stars (and me when playing FIFA) will do well to look at these three and try and conduct themselves in a similar manner.

Friday 27 January 2012

The Curious Case of Andy Murray


So it will be the Novak Djokovic v Rafael Nadal in the final of the Australian Open this Sunday, after the world number 1 saw off a great Andy Murray performance this afternoon (night, if you happen to be reading this in Australia).

I have been vocal in the past in dismissing Andy Murray as a genuine Grand Slam winner. “He’ll never win a Grand Slam” I’d say to anyone who would listen (usually one or two people, MAX). However, his performance today made me question my view. He isn’t going to win the Australian Open (obviously), but if he can perform like he did for the best part of 3 sets today in future tournaments, i’ll probably be eating my words. 

Novak Djokovic is super human at the minute. It wouldn’t surprise me if in future he is talked about with the same esteem as Batman, Superman, and Crocodile Dundee (amongst other superheroes). His defence today was unnatural; returning balls that he had absolutely no right to even get close to. The only thing that can stop him is probably a restraining order against the tennis ball, but it would be a strange move by the courts (no pun intended) to allow such a thing. Andy Murray’s defence wasn’t too shabby either though. These two slugged it out numerous times in almost 30 shot rallies. Winners were aplenty, as were poor challenges.

I said to my friend in the gym during the first set “Looks like Novak’s going to do this one easily” and he agreed. Then after getting fed up of inflicting unnecessary pain upon my biceps I walked home to find Murray in control of the 2nd set.

The third set lasted as long as a football match. They were breaking each other for fun (but more likely to try and win the match) and one thought kept going through my head. “Murray is like Youtube. He’ll get ahead, and then the little circular thing that moves along by the second will catch up with that grey bar that shows how much has loaded, and hey presto, he’s buffering”. Murray often broke or played an incredible shot, before Djokovic replied spectacularly to regain the edge. He could never seem to keep ahead for long. That’s the point i’m trying to express.

Anyway, Murray overcame the buffering problems (much like I did when trying to watch a film on Youtube yesterday) and took the third set.

The fourth set was a bit of a disaster for the Scottish Andy Murray, so i’ll take you straight to the fifth set. Djokovic was serving for the match at 5-2, I tweeted something about Murray bottling it, and then he broke back, to show that I know NOTHING about sport. Murray found some energy, and his quality returned. It was squeaky bum time from here on in (or squeaky bumhole as one of my non-sporty friends once mistakenly said).

Djokovic prevailed, but Murray can be proud of his performance. If he was playing Federer today, he would have won fairly easily in my opinion. He might have even scraped past Nadal too. But this Serbian chap; he’s special. If Djokovic plays to his very best in at least 3 sets, he will win the match. Murray made him play that well this afternoon. One day though, he might only play to 95%, and that’s when someone will have a slim chance.

Some (me) will say Murray is a bottler. In the past he has been, without doubt. His quest for a Grand Slam still eludes him. It wasn’t bottle that lost the match for Murray today though, it was simply that he came up against a better opponent. Murray and Djokovic have always been close in the rankings, and years ago it was a question of which one would take the bull by its horns and kick on (don’t try this at home/in a field). Novak (i’m not actually on first name terms with him) has done that spectacularly.

With this new coach of Murray’s though, Ivan Lendl, it looks as if he is now also gearing up to kick on. If he does, people can stop using the excuse of “He’s unfortunate to play in an era of 3 greats”, and start saying “This era of tennis is fantastic, with the 4 greats we have on show”.

Today was a great day for tennis. One of the all time great matches; an epic. Novak Djovokic proved why he is the best in the world, and Murray proved why, one day, he CAN win a Grand Slam. Somewhere in a hotel room in Melbourne, Rafael Nadal will be overjoyed that Djokovic was pushed to his mental and physical limits today. Either that, or he’ll just be asleep.


Tuesday 17 January 2012

How to solve a problem like Wigan...


Ever since the start of last season, I have been one wishing defeats against Wigan. Primarily because I had money on them to be relegated. “Their time of overachieving must come to an end” I said to myself, in a less sinister way than it probably sounds. Fast forward then to the end of last season, and Wigan defy the odds and win away at Stoke to escape the bottom 3, after paying a seasons worth of rent to the relegation zone. I lost my money, and I lost my temper. “They’ve got no fans! They don’t deserve to be there!” I remember saying, in a strop at 5pm on Survival Sunday. This view has been echoed by many recently, so, how do we solve a problem like Wigan?

Last night 16,026 turned up to see Wigan v Man City. Over 5,000 of these fans were affiliated to City, meaning just the 11,000 home fans. 9,000 tickets in the home end(s) went unsold, for a local match against top of the league. I’m almost done with numbers, so bare with me. They average 16,056 per game, and as a percentage that is just 63% of the ground that is filled.
Joey Barton took time away from being controversial and moaning about a red card, to make a good point on Twitter. "Wigan should give surplus tickets to local schools or kids homes or something. Better than having plastic chairs IMO!! Or 2 for 1 tickets". For those of you not familiar with internet/text abbreviations, IMO = In my opinion. It's vital the club try and convert the youngsters into Wigan fans, before they are abducted by rugby league.

Barton wasn’t the only one tweeting about the plastic chairs on show though. “Fancy dress at Wigan tonight. Fans turning up as empty seats” was a popular tweet. I smiled at the first one, but by the 127th I knew what the punchline was. I got an overwhelming sense that people were angry that Wigan were in the Premier League, purely based on their lack of support.

There are teams in the lower leagues that could attract well over 30,000 a week if they returned to the top flight. Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday and Derby County being casing points. Derby sold out their ground more or less every week in the 2007-08 season and got a mighty 11 points. So did they bring more (i’m talking metaphorically now rather than literally) to the Premier League than Wigan? Well, they signed some greats of the game, such as Claude Davis, Benny Feilhaber and Roy Carroll, whilst Wigan have only managed to attract the likes of Antonio Valencia, Huge Rodallega and Victor Moses (who was tipped to go to Barcelona, amongst others).

The Latics have done everything right on the pitch since they reached the Promised Land, and credit must go to Dave Whelan for his wise running of the club. Whether you like it or not (and I certainly didn’t like it last season), Wigan deserve to be in the Premier League because they’ve consistently been better than at least 3 other clubs. I suppose we could apply for a new ruling that states that only the best supported teams can be in the Premier League, but that sort of notion thankfully died out in 1945. Just imagine if Wigan filled their stadium every week. More income, more money to go towards players and wages. The likes of Emile Heskey would be flocking back to Lancashire, and the Manchester teams would probably (but almost certainly not) be looking over their shoulders, nervously...

Wigan is a town. A town famous for pies and rugby league. More fans turn up to watch Wigan Warriors than Wigan Athletic. In fact, in 2011 the Warriors smashed all sorts of attendance records for the sport. To put it simply, the people of Wigan would rather watch 20stone men run into each other at speed, than watch 22 people run around a pitch kicking a ”bag of wind” (this particular phrase was used as an insult to the game of football by an old friend of mine).

So yes, it would be lovely, if, when watching Wigan on television, we’d see the faces of some lovely Lancastrians’, instead of thousands of faded blue and red seats, but it’s important that we try not to discriminate against the actual Wigan team, and those that do turn up. Currently, they deserve to be in the Premier League more than the 72 teams below them. So to conclude, there is no problem to solve, and it’s much easier saying that when you have invested no money and are not wishing defeat on them every week. 

Friday 13 January 2012

A 50th Minute Report on Derby's season.

With just over half the season gone, Derby currently sit 10th in the Championship, on the back of 5 wins out of 6 in all competitions. It has already resembled a rollercoaster of emotions for the club though; a rollercoaster that has showcased the fickle nature of football fans.

A great start to the season saw the Rams win their first 4 league matches. Fans were ringing up Radio Derby expressing their delight at having Brian Clough’s son in charge.  Fans relief at sticking with Nigel Clough through the previous 3 years of poor times poured on to the airwaves. People were even talking about the dreaded ‘P’ word, despite the fact it was early enough in the season to get a suntan on Blackpool beach.

Then, as with previous seasons, came the sticky patch. Five straight league defeats in November woke the moaners up from their hibernation. Anger and petulance replaced relief from fans on the airwaves.  “Nige isn’t his fathers son. Get rid of him before it’s too late” is the sort of phrase that wouldn’t look out of place on a Jeremy Kyle show, but it was in fact the view of one Derby fan. Others were equally as damning, but they stayed away from bringing genetics into it. A Tottenham fan even waded in to the Nigel Clough bashing. “I live in the area and I feel so sorry for Derby fans. They’ve put up with so much rubbish for so long now. It’s not fair. They’re great people and deserve so much better than the tripe they’re getting”.

Transport yourself to late December. Santa has been, and the rollercoaster is emerging from the lowest depth of its course so far. Back-to-back home wins against high flying Leeds and West Ham cause giddy excitement. An away win at Hull in the new year sends fans dizzy with delirium. A home win against Palace in the FA Cup delights the 10,000 that turned up to watch, but makes others wish it was a league match whilst the team are in good form.

The moaners returned to the burrows. The airwaves opened to those wanted to portray Nigel Clough as the next Jose Mourinho (for the record, that didn’t happen, but you get the point). The good form coincided with the return from injury of key players; something that Clough has been robbed of for so long during his spell as manager.

Shaun Barker has formed a solid partnership with Jason Shackell at centre back, and John Brayford and Gareth Roberts have been in impressive form in front of Frank Fielding. Other key players have returned, such as Paul Green and James Bailey. The emergence of young striker Callum Ball has also been a positive for the Rams, scoring against Bristol City and a cracker against West Ham.

So Derby look to be on the up again, but even the most optimistic of fans will have a handbook locked away in a drawer somewhere, informing them of how many Derby fans deal with disastrous runs. 1) Boo excessively 2) Shout obscenities at players when they misplaces a pass (don’t forget to tell them they’re not fit to wear the shirt, too). 3) Start calling for Clough to leave 4) Ring up Radio Derby and rant about everything bad in the world. To the best of my knowledge, this book has not been published, but it is an insight into how things work for the moaners.

Where can it go wrong then? Bottom side Coventry visit Pride Park on Saturday. Short of form, short of good players, and short of fans. Were this match taking place on Football Manager, the pre-match teamtalk would be ‘Don’t get complacent out there!’. The Rams need to keep playing as they are and hope for an injury free run to key players. Fans also need to stay calm and positive. Whilst at Derby, Robbie Savage remarked that it can be unpleasant playing at Pride Park when things are going wrong, because of the negativity of some fans. Derby are the second best supported team in the Championship - behind West Ham - with an average attendance of over 26,000. So when it goes wrong, as it has so often in recent years, there are plenty there to witness it. But when things are going right, there are even more there.

This season now should be one in which they do not flirt with relegation, but instead time they started on the road to becoming like their next FA Cup opponents, Stoke (without the long ball), rather than next league opponents, Coventry. The angry Tottenham fan has a point; Derby fans do deserve better, but you never know, that might be just around the corner...