Thursday, August 19, 2010

Liverpool Home Kit 2010-12

Liverpool Home Kit 2010-12
     As a little taster for a more in depth review of a selection of 10-11 season kits that will be coming shortly I thought I’d just feature the new adidas Liverpool home kit for 2010-12 (yes, two seasons!!)
 The strip was one of the earliest to be involved a few months ago and despite being slightly underwhelmed the design (like most of adidas’ recent strips actually) has really grown on me. Its a design that just screams “Liverpool” despite the arrival of new sponsors Standard Chartered who replace the old familiar Carlsberg. The shirt features a simple crew neck devoid of any trim and a diamond shadow

Monday, August 16, 2010

FC Barcelona Players - Lionel Messi

If any player can be said to be the natural successor to Diego Maradona, then surely it must be Lionel Messi.
Born in 1987, he signed for Barcelona from Newell's Old Boys of Argentina at 13 years of age, and since that time Messi has been marked for super stardom. But for a niggling succession of injuries, he surely would have been a Ballon D'Or winner by now.
What has always singled out 'Leo' as being special is his ability to dribble at speed with the ball under perfect control. Although primarily a winger, he can play more central or even deeper but, whatever his position, when he has the ball at his feet, the fans always expect something special from him.
Since scoring his first league goal for Barça in May, 2005 Messi has become a talisman for the team - his modest attitude off the pitch and his constant praising of the work of his team mates ensuring that the fans always hold him in the highest esteem.
Life wasn't always easy for Messi, though, despite his prodigious talent. As a youngster, Lionel suffered from a growth preventing hormonal disorder - Barcelona helped tempt him to Spain by paying for his medical treatment. This short stature, ironically, has enabled Leo to have that low centre of gravity that enables him to weave through defences.
Despite being wooed by the Spanish national team, Messi

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

English Football - The Chances of a Premiership Club Going Out of Business

As the United Kingdom limps along after the recession, many of our football clubs are rumoured to have serious financial problems. In the past, it was always the smaller clubs in the lower divisions that faced going to the wall. That is not the case today because some world famous clubs have gotten themselves and their finances in to a real mess. Some of the expenditure is downright reckless and that is being kind.
There are plenty of English football fans wondering whether we could actually lose one of our clubs. The chances of a premiership club going out of business are very slim if you think about it logically. Cast your mind back to the recent banking crisis and the extra funds given to banks that the taxpayer was not told about. It is safe to assume similar rescue packages would be put together to rescue a football club if it came to that.
The scaremongers enjoy telling us that our domestic game is doomed. However

Friday, August 6, 2010

South Africa 2010 - Security So Far So Good

The security situation at the on going FIFA soccer World cup in South Africa has been very encouraging, considering the way many people had expressed concern as to the country's ability to control crime rate during the tournament. With the tournament already one week old, and with first group matches concluded, there hasn't been any ugly report.
With South Africa rated among the three most violent and crime prone countries in the world, one would think that by now there would be incidence of crimes or violence every where. Surprisingly, nobody has been harassed, no crowd troubles during matches, no shooting, and maiming of visitors. This goes to prove to the world that Africa is not synonymous with violence and crimes. This continent is even more secure than Europe, America, Asia and Australia.
Africans are hospitable people; they love visitors/strangers. This world cup is not a South African affair; it belongs to the whole of the African continent, and everything is

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Gustavo Dudamel - El Maestro

Gustavo Dudamel is the new musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and it seems to be a marriage made in musical heaven. In one of the most populous Latino cities in the United States, it only makes sense that one of its top classical stars would be a young man from a lower middle class beginning from Barquisimeto, Venezuela.
Dudamel wasn't quite known as a child prodigy, but he comes from a musical background. His father was a violinist and his mother a voice teacher, so he had music in his household early in life. He didn't start playing an instrument until he was 10 years old, which is considered aged when talking about most prodigies, but he turned out to be very good, enough so that only a couple of years later he was enrolled into the Jacinto Lara Conservatory, where he studied violin with Jose Luis Jiminez. After that he went to study with Jose Francisco del Castillo at the Latin American Violin Academy.
At 14, he started studying conducting with Rodolfo Saglimbeni, and was named Music Director of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra. Later on, in 1999, he began

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Things to Consider When Betting on UK Football Managerial Appointments

Betting on any live market is always a test of nerve and any savvy punter will instantly tell you that managerial markets are ones to avoid like the plague.
This has often been the rule as prices fluctuate wildly and one rogue rumour is enough to see one of the candidates backed off the boards.
Except there's a common theme with most clubs these days. They're all skint. And what do you do when you're a company short of cash? You take a pragmatic approach to recruitment.
I could list oodles of examples here but one of the cheapest successes in this market came when I backed Phil Parkinson to get the Charlton job. The caretaker boss did appallingly and yet still got handed the reins simply because he was the cheapest
option.
I also had a hefty wedge on Neil Lennon to get the Celtic post recently for the same reason. Celtic may be a glamorous name but they're no longer a glamorous club. Lennon, the first footballer I ever interviewed during his time at Crewe but that's another story, has potential and is a choice most fans would accept.
But the stunning Scottish Cup defeat to Gretna seemed to have put paid to his hopes of keeping the job. Except it was excused and I was soon cashing in on my wager. Why? Because he was a better option for the board than all of the other candidates? No, it's just that promoting from within was cost-effective.
Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with this policy. It served Liverpool well for decades. Without giving people a chance, we'd never get anywhere and the managerial merry-go-round would be made up of the same sad old faces hopping from job to job.
But do some research and look up recent managerial appointments across Britain. Take a look at exactly how many interim appointments, the men holding the fort, end up getting the job permanently. Sometimes even if they don't want it (Ricky Sbragia at Sunderland) or their record is shocking (Parkinson).
So next time a manager gets the sack and there's a scramble for all those big names to take over, try and step back from the situation and think rationally. If you were the chairman, what would you do? Okay, forget that. Now think again. If you were the chairman and was forced with financial troubles, what would be the cheapest option? Then find your stand-in temporary coach and have a cheeky flutter on him holding firm.
Of course, it doesn't always work. But you'll find that there's a growing tendency to take the easy option and save a few bucks. Chairmen have a habit of consistently picking the wrong man, and yet when it comes to rectifying the situation they take little responsibility themselves and just wield the axe again.
They should be more accountable but they're often happy to support the caretaker boss. 'It's all about continuity' they preach. 'He deserves his chance'. 'The fans can identify with him'. Poppycock. He's cheaper than the unemployed bosses living off their compensation and raiding other clubs means hefty fees being paid out.
Cheapest means best when it comes to betting on the next manager markets. This is where you should be looking to invest when the time is right.
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