I'm a 23 year old Newcastle United fan, who enjoys watching and playing football, listening to music, watching movies and reading. Actually, none of that's very exciting is it? Erm...I also ran across America, won the Congressional Medal of Honour, have been to the White House 3 times, taught Elvis to dance and helped John Lennon write Imagine. My motto is, 'Life is like a box of chocolates...' no, sorry that's Forrest Gump....
Today’s Independent features an interview with lower-league player Andy Mangan, who was banned for five months in 2009 for betting on the outcome of a match that he was involved in. Don’t worry, I’m not going to copy and paste the interview! I’m sure you’re all clever enough to go and find it for yourselves! But I am going to highlight some of the quite worrying remarks that Mangan had to say about gambling culture amongst lower league players.
The HMS Chelsea hasn’t even jettisoned the life-boat containing Carlo Ancellotti’s ‘cast-offs’ and already the sharks are beginning to circle. The first victim….sorry….player to be thrown overboard could be Yuri Zhirkov. The Russian midfielder has already made it clear that if he fails to get first-team football soon, then he could start considering his options at Stamford Bridge.
Harry Redknapp could be about to do battle with Europe’s elite, as he attempts to bring Fenerbache’s right-back Gokhan Gonul to White Hart Lane. Gonul has been attracting attention from both Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and Tottenham have entered the fray for the 26 year old’s signature.
On Wednesday 23rd February, a ceremony at the People’s Museum in Manchester saw ex-England international Viv Anderson present his England shirt for exhibition. The shirt, worn by Viv on his debut for a match against Czechoslovakia in 1979, was perhaps one of the most important in the history of British football. Because Viv Anderson, was the first black man to represent England at full international level.
Enrique is on the verge of getting out of Toon, and recent comments made to the press in Spain suggested that he is expecting offers to come for him in Summer. Liverpool will have to battle it out with Manchester United, AC Milan and…Aston Villa (?) for the player’s signature. Enrique was said to be ‘flattered’ by the interest shown in him
Carlo Ancellotti is preparing a mass Summer clear-out at Stamford Bridge, in a bid to improve his squad for next season’s Premiership campaign. The Italian has already targeted several big name exits, as he attempts to recoup the losses he made in the January transfer window and trim down his squad for next season.
It’s being reported that another Gunner has been linked to the Catalan giants Barcelona. This time it’s the turn of Samir Nasri, who has 16 months left on his Arsenal contract. Barcelona are supposed to very interested in the Frenchman, and could spend over 25 million Euros on the player.
Carlos Tevez’s agent, Kia Joorabchian, claims that he can convince the striker to rejoin Corinthians in the next two years. Corinthians themselves have this week admitted that they would be interested in re-signing the City striker who scored 25 goals in 39 appearances for the Brazilian club, before he was shipped out to West Ham.
Arsenal youngster Aaron Ramsey says that he is ready to return to action with the Gunner’s and claims that he is better than ever, following spells in the Championship with Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City.
A new study at the University of Portsmouth has revealed that there may be a link between the clothes managers wear and the performances of their teams on the pitch. The results seemed to suggest that managers who wear suits on matchdays, and tracksuits on the training pitch, gain more respect from their players and subsequently they want to perform better.
To prove that Carroll is getting better, Dalglish treated the player to a night out at Liverpool’s Echo Arena to see hit 90’s pop-group Boyzone begin their latest UK tour. Yes, you read that right, Boyzone. Isn’t it a wonder? It’s believed that Dalglish wanted to show how ‘down with the kids’ he is, but got it spectacuarly wrong as the ‘kids’ at the concert were in their late 30s.
Finally, Newcastle are beginning to emerge from the massive hangover that was relegation and the sale of their biggest asset. Without realizing it, Alan Pardew and his rag-tag band of players are beginning to forge a mini-revolution on Tyneside.