I haven't been blogging for a long time but now I am back with purpose and positivity.
My fantastic woman Sandra and I have managed to produce an absolutely beautiful daughter, Polly on the 21st February 2014. I am now inspired to blog again.
This afternoon I was in my kitchen bottling my latest batch of homemade ale with my beautiful three week old daughter looking on from her bouncy chair thingy, when The Stone Roses came on the radio. Cue daddy to stop his bottling in mid-flow, crank up the volume and dance to One Love while his baby girl gurgled and stared adoringly at her father 'dad-dancing' in the kitchen. It was a seminal moment in our father/daughter relationship.
So I'm back and some of my blogs are at aimed fathers to be, I'll offer help, advice and handy tips on home-brewing, cycle maintenance and a bit of what is expected of you and what to expect as a new dad.
Newsh.
Friday 21 March 2014
Tuesday 23 March 2010
Rules? You're making it up as you go along
Double Standards.
Cheers then Premier League, thanks for all your assistance. Where do your rules stand now?
Fine the club a million bucks one day and the next allow them to sell players outside the transfer window. It's not just allowing Pompey to sell but also allowing clubs to buy (from Portsmouth) outside the transfer window, so that's two rules broken or bent whatever you want to call it. So why did you apply the strict rules and fine Portsmouth £1m and then bend the rules to allow them to transfer players out? Oh yes of course to pay the fine.
Well I shall be writing to the premier league to demand a full explanation and a breakdown of where the £1m will be going.
Cheers then Premier League, thanks for all your assistance. Where do your rules stand now?
Fine the club a million bucks one day and the next allow them to sell players outside the transfer window. It's not just allowing Pompey to sell but also allowing clubs to buy (from Portsmouth) outside the transfer window, so that's two rules broken or bent whatever you want to call it. So why did you apply the strict rules and fine Portsmouth £1m and then bend the rules to allow them to transfer players out? Oh yes of course to pay the fine.
Well I shall be writing to the premier league to demand a full explanation and a breakdown of where the £1m will be going.
Sunday 28 February 2010
Administration and that
It's not the fault of Portsmouth FC as an entity or of the fans that it's in this disgraceful and embarrassing position.
The current players and staff are all committed to the survival and the future of the club which is at the heart of the city. An historic football club in a proud city full of heritage.
I'm studying mathematics graphs and tables, one constant which crops up is the former manager of AFC Bournemouth, West Ham, Portsmouth and Southampton. Four random showings of football clubs entering administration conclude that three out of the four clubs went into administration at some point prior to that managers departure.
Three out of the three clubs that went into administration that the former manager managed are located on the south coast where the former manager lives.
It could of course be a coincidence.
The current players and staff are all committed to the survival and the future of the club which is at the heart of the city. An historic football club in a proud city full of heritage.
I'm studying mathematics graphs and tables, one constant which crops up is the former manager of AFC Bournemouth, West Ham, Portsmouth and Southampton. Four random showings of football clubs entering administration conclude that three out of the four clubs went into administration at some point prior to that managers departure.
Three out of the three clubs that went into administration that the former manager managed are located on the south coast where the former manager lives.
It could of course be a coincidence.
Saturday 20 February 2010
What If It Was Your Club?
Portsmouths plight has been worsened by the late winner for a mediocre Stoke City at Fratton this evening, the hopes that have been raised by the news of an impending salvation from a new buyout were dashed by yet another defeat that leaves Pompey well adrift of the rest of the strugglers in Englands top division.
What is really upsetting is the way many people in the game have turned on the club and in speaking out have turned against the fans and the city which is so proud of a famous English club. A club that won successive league championships, provided international players to England and many other nations. A football club is the beating heart of a city and community, Portsmouth FC is no different, it is a huge part of Portsmouth and it's people.
Quite why some of the media and football people are crying out for Portsmouth to be destroyed is beyond me. Would they be calling for Chelsea or Manchester United to be liquidated if their benefactors pulled the plug and left them in the lurch? No of course not. Has Portsmouth FC offended anyone so much that the football team should cease to be? I think not, the fact is Pompey have lived beyond their means and we readily admit it (shame that nobody in the media admits Redknapp is in any way responsible) but look at Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and they all live beyond their means. United have recently issued a £500m bond to solve the cashflow problems that was sold out in hours and is not performing too well, is that responsible?
So to all the pundits, journalists, managers and so called football fans who are wishing Portsmouth Football Club to be wound up and finished, put yourselves in the shoes of a Pompey fan and then think on, what you believe should happen to a great historic club....would you want that to happen to your team?
It's not the fault of Portsmouth FC as an entity or the fans that it's in this disgraceful and embarrassing position and don't think for one minute it should be resolved by destroying the football league status of what has been and is an institution in a great and proud city.
What is really upsetting is the way many people in the game have turned on the club and in speaking out have turned against the fans and the city which is so proud of a famous English club. A club that won successive league championships, provided international players to England and many other nations. A football club is the beating heart of a city and community, Portsmouth FC is no different, it is a huge part of Portsmouth and it's people.
Quite why some of the media and football people are crying out for Portsmouth to be destroyed is beyond me. Would they be calling for Chelsea or Manchester United to be liquidated if their benefactors pulled the plug and left them in the lurch? No of course not. Has Portsmouth FC offended anyone so much that the football team should cease to be? I think not, the fact is Pompey have lived beyond their means and we readily admit it (shame that nobody in the media admits Redknapp is in any way responsible) but look at Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and they all live beyond their means. United have recently issued a £500m bond to solve the cashflow problems that was sold out in hours and is not performing too well, is that responsible?
So to all the pundits, journalists, managers and so called football fans who are wishing Portsmouth Football Club to be wound up and finished, put yourselves in the shoes of a Pompey fan and then think on, what you believe should happen to a great historic club....would you want that to happen to your team?
It's not the fault of Portsmouth FC as an entity or the fans that it's in this disgraceful and embarrassing position and don't think for one minute it should be resolved by destroying the football league status of what has been and is an institution in a great and proud city.
Thursday 4 February 2010
Another Day Another Drama
More dramatic news from Fratton Park as it's revealed Balram Chanrai is to become Portsmouth latest owner. He has taken over invisible Arab Ali al Farajs 90% stake, Chanrai and his associates have lent the money which has kept Portsmouth FC afloat in recent months and the failure of the Faraj company Falcondrone to repay any of it has led to Pompey changing hands yet again.
With two big battles looming next week, one versus HMRC in the High Court and the not insignicant FA Cup fifth round tie with nearest rivals Southampton what Pompey really need is someone to steady the ship which has been recently plundered by former manager Harry Redknapp.
What I find strange is that with all the transfers out to Spurs no money has been seen coming Pompey's way, Crouch, Defoe, Krancjar, Kaboul all gone and Pompey sliding ever closer to oblivion. If Chanrai can placate the taxman next Wednesday then the club will be on a more even keel but the revenue do seem to be targetting football clubs just lately, Crystal Palace and Notts County to name but two have been hit with winding-up orders and Palace failed to stave it off incurring a ten point penalty as a result.
If Portsmouth were to enter administration the nine point deduction would only confirm what is probably going to be relegation from the Premier League but is the top flight that desirable for a club of Pompey's size? Even in a good season the best a club can realistically hope for is a top ten finish in a league that is so top heavy a one nil defeat against Chelsea is considered a good result. Qualification to the new format EUFA Cup, the Europa League brings the added challenge of a possible nineteen extra games, qualify from the group stages and you're rewarded with all the teams not good enough for the final stages of the Champions League joining you.
The massive spending and wages in the Premier League has to bring the house of cards crashing down at some time and Portsmouth could be well off out of it sitting in the Championship competing on a level playing field virtually debt free.
Tuesday 26 January 2010
Don't You Just Love The FA Cup?
Portsmouth find themselves in the fifth round of the greatest club competition in world football, their lowly league position has no doubt forced some fans into voting with their wallets as to whether they attend a cup tie. Two embarrassing attendances of eleven and ten thousand for the games against Coventry and Sunderland have lent their next opponents some ammunition to fire in the weeks approaching the game versus local rivals Southampton. Pompey won the cup in 2008 barely two years ago but we all know whats happened since then, three different managers, the squad scattered to the winds (mostly to Tottenham) and now the club teetering on the brink of financial oblivion.
The Portsmouth News website has had a mini invasion of Southampton fans on the comments boards all eager to point out that they are getting bigger attendances than Pompey and although it's sad it is nonetheless true. Where are all those tens of thousands of fans that thronged the streets and packed the common to welcome home the cup winning heroes? All gone it seems, I know there is a recession and times are hard but for less than ten thousand fans (the visitors brought six or seven hundred) at home for a cup tie is shockingly poor for a city of the size of Portsmouth.
The Battle of Hampshire at St Marys will have around four thousand Pompey fans there and I hope that the tickets are offered first to those who bothered to attend the previous two rounds and especially a priority for those who travelled to Coventry for the replay. Those who sat through the dire first match and sang their hearts out at the Ricoh Stadium deserve it. Likewise the fans who got behind their team against Sunderland when all too predictably they went one nil behind but witnessed an inspired second half performance. Whether the players kick started the fans or vice versa I'm not sure but a corner seemed to have been turned.
Local derbies are few and far between these days, the atmosphere is electric and even though it's a lunchtime kick-off this will be no different. I really miss the Pompey Southampton games and I'm really looking forward to this one, it could go either way. It really is too close to call, Portsmouth are the Premier League side but to be truthful they lack players of true quality and Saints are already on a run in the FA Cup and looking for more cup success are just ninety minutes from Wembley in the Johnstone's Paints Trophy.
If I were a betting man (which I am) I'd lump my cash on it being a draw which is something that Hampshire Constabulary will not want to see and neither will the residents of Fratton who well remember the scenes of violence the last time the sides met in Portsmouth. The historic facts are that Portsmouth have never beaten Saints in the FA Cup in four meetings but the cash boost of more than £400,000 from The FA and television will be handy for Pompey in these cash strapped times where they have a credit rating worse than Zimbabwe.
The Portsmouth News website has had a mini invasion of Southampton fans on the comments boards all eager to point out that they are getting bigger attendances than Pompey and although it's sad it is nonetheless true. Where are all those tens of thousands of fans that thronged the streets and packed the common to welcome home the cup winning heroes? All gone it seems, I know there is a recession and times are hard but for less than ten thousand fans (the visitors brought six or seven hundred) at home for a cup tie is shockingly poor for a city of the size of Portsmouth.
The Battle of Hampshire at St Marys will have around four thousand Pompey fans there and I hope that the tickets are offered first to those who bothered to attend the previous two rounds and especially a priority for those who travelled to Coventry for the replay. Those who sat through the dire first match and sang their hearts out at the Ricoh Stadium deserve it. Likewise the fans who got behind their team against Sunderland when all too predictably they went one nil behind but witnessed an inspired second half performance. Whether the players kick started the fans or vice versa I'm not sure but a corner seemed to have been turned.
Local derbies are few and far between these days, the atmosphere is electric and even though it's a lunchtime kick-off this will be no different. I really miss the Pompey Southampton games and I'm really looking forward to this one, it could go either way. It really is too close to call, Portsmouth are the Premier League side but to be truthful they lack players of true quality and Saints are already on a run in the FA Cup and looking for more cup success are just ninety minutes from Wembley in the Johnstone's Paints Trophy.
If I were a betting man (which I am) I'd lump my cash on it being a draw which is something that Hampshire Constabulary will not want to see and neither will the residents of Fratton who well remember the scenes of violence the last time the sides met in Portsmouth. The historic facts are that Portsmouth have never beaten Saints in the FA Cup in four meetings but the cash boost of more than £400,000 from The FA and television will be handy for Pompey in these cash strapped times where they have a credit rating worse than Zimbabwe.
Saturday 5 December 2009
Amir Khan: ‘I’d be a superstar if I was white’
I'm not a boxing fan but it seems to me that boxers are only in the public eye and in the media when they are building up to a fight. Boxing is a minority sport, a true star will shine through but between bouts the average spectator is not interested in the boxer.
In truth very few boxers can mix celebrity and their sport, the greatest character the sport ever produced is obviously Muhammed Ali but Frank Bruno hit the heights of fame and stardom in Britain and if I'm not mistaken Frank isn't white.
If Amir Khan was an interesting character with something to offer the masses on a weekly basis then maybe he would be a celebrity. Offering nothing but a couple of weeks of hype each year and nothing tangible in between isn't going to make him a superstar.
In truth very few boxers can mix celebrity and their sport, the greatest character the sport ever produced is obviously Muhammed Ali but Frank Bruno hit the heights of fame and stardom in Britain and if I'm not mistaken Frank isn't white.
If Amir Khan was an interesting character with something to offer the masses on a weekly basis then maybe he would be a celebrity. Offering nothing but a couple of weeks of hype each year and nothing tangible in between isn't going to make him a superstar.
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