Showing posts with label Premiership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Premiership. Show all posts

Friday 21 December 2018

I Shot A Man In Tesco ... Just To Watch Him Die


Over the last couple of days I've been listening to "90 Bisodol(Crimond)" and been slightly taken aback by it's sheer quality and brilliance. Saying that, you can probably apple that to most Half Man Half Biscuit albums.

I once said that whatever Bowie album you are listening to is your favourite Bowie album after listening to "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)"  (post here) and in the HMHB canon "90 Bisodol(Crimond)" certainly lives up to that.

There are a couple of songs that are maybe not quite as good as the rest, but still great none the less and or me these are "Excavating Rita" and "Something's Rotten In The Back of Iceland" and they are crammed full of excellent wordsmithery and litererary references, and these are the least good bits of the album, which emphasises how good it really is.

"The Coroner's Footnote" and "RSVP" are both lovely tunes with a very dark twist where you don't know whether to laugh or grimace. I just enjoy.

In the middle of the album (running wise) is "Descent Of The Stiperstones" (I think it should be spelt Styperstones for some reason) which is the big song on the album, and excellent off kilter Crossroads narrative ("The Crazy World of Arthur Brownlow"). For some reason I though this was the closer but no matter, there is a lot of great stuff still to come.

The title is taken from a great line in "L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres" and that line playfully plagiarising a line from "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash, and this album is a really great end to end play. The finale "Rock and Roll Is Full of Bad Wools" (I still don't know what that means) is a right on swipe and the majority of plastic football fans that have grown up thinking it the top six of the Premier League, Real Madrid, Barcelona , PSG or any team with money and it does mention Roots Hall.

Have a brilliant Christmas everyone, Yule love it.

Tuesday 3 May 2016

Leicester City Premiere Cru


Yesterday Leicester City became Champions of the English Premier League for the first time. This may not sound hugely unexpected given that the Premiership is only 25 years old , but this this the first time they have topped English football in their history. They survived by the skin of their teeth last season thanks to an amazing run in under manager Nigel Pearson , who they proceeded to sack , and replace with Claudio Ranieri , much to the hilarity of the media.

Throughout the season the media rammed the Arsenal / Man City / Chelsea / Ma United down our throats , like most seasons as though no other clubs exist. Most pundits were expecting the wheels to fall off when key players got injured . This was at a time when key players WERE injured. Any week that Leicester didn't win that was the end and the pundits would be proved right and with Chelsea going off the rails it would be Manchester City or Arsenal who would take the title and Manchester United maybe third.

Leicester established themselves as everyone's second favourite team, they got the title through had work and the skill of knittng together as a team. Whenever they hit a problem Ranieri dealt with it.

Also included in this amazing season was the fact that James Vardy scored in eleven consecutive Premiership matches surpassing Ruud Van Nistleroy's record of ten

Meanwhile Watford and Bournemouth established themselves and in the top four the only realistic threat to Leicester was provided by Tottenham Hotspur , with West Ham als punching for a top four place.

Sir Alex Ferguson got it wrong though , he said they'd have it won with three games to spare.

There are two matches to go.

Leicester City are Champions

And already the pundits are predicting their demise next season.

They have conquered the most difficult league in the world , because they are competing against money and the media. Since the formation of The English Premier League only Blackburn Rovers have broken the hold of the the money clubs , and that was with the backing of Jack Walker's millions.

There is money behind Leicester but when they beat Chelsea earlier in the season a chastening fact was that Diego Costa cost more than the whole Leicester first 11.

There will be moves afoot to make sure this doesn't happen again because of the potential effect on revenues , or maybe that's just me being cynical. This may be rose coloured spectacles time but I remembered when you didn't really know at the beginning of the season who would win it , I remember Carlisle topping the First Division ,  anyone could do it. Now you need outside billions to compete in the Premiership .... but the teams mentioned in this piece have given  us a great season. Savour it because this is not  what the money men want.

Have a great day.
It'll Never Last ... But It Did!!



Sunday 13 May 2012

Premier In?

Last day of the Premiership today and Roberto Mancini thinks it'll be good for another team to win the Premiership (ie Manchester City) It's just a pity that the team that breaks the stranglehold will only do so because they had the biggest sugar daddy.

If you look at the top teams (position wise) in the Premiership the only teams being run on a sound financial basis are Newcastle and Arsenal. New Euro Fair Financial Play rules could see the likes of Manchester City , Manchester United , Chelsea , Tottenham and Liverpool excluded from Europe i the near future.

It's amazing that Swansea (Swanselona as they are known in some circles) and Norwich have fearlessly bedded into the Premiership and that has got to be due to Ian Holloway's attacking Blackpool last season . Yes they were relegated , but were a huge breath of fresh air to the Premiership.

Anyway , I'm sure theres going to be lots of twists and turns , controversy , cat fighting and fun. We still dont know who will win , who will be in The Champions League , who will be the last team relegated. We know the probabilities but favourites can always fall.

It's not long since Wigan were dead and buried , yet Dave Whelan and Roberto Martinez didnt panic , and they are still the only Premiership club who have never been relegated from the top flight.

Anyway here's my favourite football song, enjoy this afternoon:




Oh I'd forgotten about this for all the Man City fans!!

Oh and finally a playlist of my favourite football related songs

Good Football Related Songs #1 by Mike Singleton on Grooveshark

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Seven Days In The Premiership

Being a Preston North End supporter, I don't have much to do with the Premiership, though living in Newcastle it's unavoidable. There's been a couple of incidents that have struck over the past week.

The first is Arsene Wengers rant against Stoke City's so called physical approach. He managed to fool even me. Failing to mention Adebayor's high challenge on DeLap and Robin Van Persie's sending off he went off on one about Stoke trying to injure his players. Everyone was focussed on Wenger's rant, NO ONE was thinking about the Arsenal team (with a bad injury list), and their current bad run. What do they do against a rampant Manchester United? The win and put their Premiership challenge back on course. Again Wenger shows his genius , taking all the flak while the team sorts itself out and returns to winning ways. The guy is a veritable god!!

Secondly the Referee's Ruling body want to get their Respect Campaign back on track following run ins with Joe Kinnear of Newcastle and Alex Ferguson , to name but two. They seem to conveniently sidestep the fact that respect must be earned , and regard any form of criticism as an attack on them. When they screw up there seems to be no comeback and and anyone who dares say anything is pilloried.

Take the goal that never was in the Watford vs Reading match. No action against the officials but Adrian Boothroyd , the Watford manager was censured for his criticism of the officials.

The latest is the situation with Barnsley's Iain Hume being hospitalised in the match against Sheffield United, the referee refusing to take action against some very physical action.

In and Everton v Liverpool derby Jamie Carragher wrestled Jolean Lescott to the ground on three occcasions and the referee di nothing, but was quick to red card Tim Hibbert after he'd touched Steven Gerrard in the area (after a word for Stevie G).

Until referees get it right and stop acting as though they're infallible they are not going to get respect , unless their name is Pierluigi Collina.


And now we have the Maradonna "Hand of God" thing raising it's head again. Maradonna got away with it , the referees / officials should have taken action at the time . They didnt because FIFA / UEFA encourage cheating, simulation is rewarded with free kicks and cards for the opposing team.