Sports Category
Sports news, commentary and scores with wit and added value. We compare and contrast the best and worst sports reporting in the mainstream press, blogs, TV and online. We love the English Premier League (Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Manchester City) and all things football but we cover cricket, rugby, the Olympics, tennis, golf, F1 and highlights of the sporting year.
Jamie Redknapp Rivals Ian Wright For Tabloid Stupidity: Liverpool’s Kop And The Gleision Colliery
JAMIE Redknapp’s columns in the Daily Mail are effluvient work. This week, Jamie uses his wit to heap praise on his dad’ Harry’s Reknapp’s career at Spurs – “dazzling” Luka Modric who Spurs did brilliantly not to sell; and “outstanding” Scott Parker who Spurs did brilliantly to buy – and to lambaste Arsenal because instead of buying Gary Cahill (£17m) or Phil Jagielka (£16m) they opted for Per Mertesacker – that German international who was outstanding at the last World Cup and cost £8m. But the best bit is this:
Emotion can work in different ways. I remember lining up for Liverpool on the last day of the old Kop, when we lost 1-0 to Norwich with an abject performance. I was proud to be there, but the occasion got the better of us. Swansea’s day was packed with emotion on Saturday, but it inspired the players and it was a wonderful result for Brendan Rodgers (above).
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Floyd Mayweather To Fight Larry Merchant In Wendy Deng Octogenarian Smack Down
FLOYD Mayweather defeated Victor Ortiz.
Ortiz aimed a headbutt at Mayweather. The pair touched gloves to make up and, as Ortiz looked at the referee, Mayweather smacked him twice in the head. Ortiz went down. Game over.
Larry Merchant, an 80-year-old HBO sports commentator, spoke with Mayweather after the sucker fight. The boxer spouted about a re-match. He ended by telling Merchant he has no respect and is rubbish at his job. Merchant responded by saying that were he only 50 year younger he’d kick Mayweather’s behind.
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Chelsea Fans Rejoice: Fernando Torres’s Miss Against Manchester United Has Made Your Season
CHELSEA fans will be wearing T-shirts saying “I Was There When Torres Missed“.
Is £50million too much to pay for such a wonderful moment? No. It’s cheap. Chelsea’s season needs highlights. The Blues fans can no longer revel in money – waving notes at fans of other clubs – when Manchester City have more. They are not be able to wallow in the delicious masochism of being an Arsenal fan. But they do have ‘Nando and his slippery boots.
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Posted: 18th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (3)
Wayne Bridge Stands On Frankie Sandford’s Dress: Manchester City Reject Fashion Know How Exposed
WHAT’S life been like for Manchester City’s Wayne Bridge since that news of the mother of his child Vanessa Perroncel’s alleged shags with married Chelsea captain John Terry?
Well, Bridge is dating Frankie Sandford, arse model and singer with The Saturdays. That might be enough, but Bridge has been keeping his skills in tune by popping along to the Cavalli store launch after party in London Fashion Week.
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Floyd Mayweather v Victor Ortiz In Photos
FLOYD Mayweather v Victor Ortiz for the WBC title bout in Las Vegas. The brutality in photos:
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Arsenal Fans Have Never Had It So Good Under Wenger: The Delicious Pain Of Being Spanked
OH, happy days, Arsenal fans. Who would have believed that as early as September the emotions would be high. Nothing beats a thrashing – and Arsenal are getting a darned good one. Disappointingly, defeat to Blackburn Rovers will not earn the Gunners travelling support a refund, as it did when the Londoners were spanked at Manchester United. The benchmark has been set: you need to lose by six to get your money back; and Blackburn, even with two Arsenal own goals, were never up to it.
Nonetheless, the pall of gloom hanging over Arsenal is delicious. Against Blackburn, Arsenal looked good. They were on the cusp of a return to might. But an off-side goal and those two owns goals helped conjure defeat from routine victory against Blackburn, who going into the game were bottom of the table. This was pain with a kink. Arsenal fans were being salved with honeyed words and unguents when the nipple clamps went on.
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Posted: 17th, September 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment (1)
Mansfield’s New Boss Carolyn Still ‘Worked As An Escort’: John Terry And Wayne Rooney Sign For Notts Club?
THE chief executive of Mansfield FC, one Carolyn Still, 29, used to be an escort, allegedly. The Sun says she “enjoyed steamy dates with scores of male punters“.
Anorak appreciates the use of the word “enjoyed“; it plays into the image that escorts love all their clients. (See adverts in The Sun.)
Tom Wells continues:
She was made chief executive of the Nottinghamshire club last week after striking up a friendship with club chairman John Radford, 45, who offered her a job.
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Ireland’s Little People See Off Australia In Rugby World Cup: Photos
THE Rugby World Cup has just created its first highlight. Look beyond Mike Tindall’s dwarf story and see Ireland defeat Australia. Yeah – the so-called little people have just taken one of the game’s biggest scalps… (Picture 2 is brilliant.)
Yeas, Cole Campbell, Racism Exists In English Football But In Italy And Spain It’s The Norm
FORMER Arsenal, Spurs and England player Sol Campbell bemoans the lack of black managers in the professional football leagues. There are, at the time of writing, just two: Chris Hughton at Birmingham City and Charlton Athletic’s Chris Powell.
Campbell cites the example of Paul Ince, the former Manchester United firebrand who became the first black manger of Premier League club when he took over at Blackburn Rovers only to be sacked after 177 days in charge:
“Why the hell is Paul not in work? What? Have you looked at his career? It’s scary. If he had the same career in Spain or Italy, he’d be a manager now. Come on, it’s pathetic.”
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Posted: 16th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Blackburn Rovers Hired Black Paul Ince To Manage Them: Does That Make Them Racist, Oliver Holt?
THE row of black mangers in professional English football continues. Ther are only two— Chris Hughton at Birmingham City and Charlton Athletic’s Chris Powell.
Oliver Holt looks at Paul Ince, the former West Ham and Manchester United player who became the first English black man to manage a Premier League club when he became boss of Blackburn Rovers:
Paul Ince, they say. Over and over again. Paul Ince: proof that black ex-players don’t deserve a shot at management.
The lack of black managers in the game is nothing to do with prejudice, they say. It’s because they’d all be as bad as Paul Ince. Ince has heard all the slurs before, of course. He can laugh at them now but there is a tinge of bitterness in the laugh still. The truth, of course, is that the slurs are just another layer of proof that aspiring black managers face barrier after barrier in their fight to make a career in English football. Even if Ince had only turned up a couple of days a week at Blackburn, how would that make him any different from a series of high-profile white managers lauded for their hands-off approach?
But Blackburn only gave him 177 days in the job before they sacked him on December 16, 2008. The club was fourth from bottom.
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Posted: 16th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
Cristiano Ronaldo Explains How Great He Is
CRISTIANO Ronaldo, formerly of Manchester Untied and now of Real Madrid, will now explain what it is to be Cristiano Ronaldo:
“I think that because I am rich, handsome and a great player people are envious of me. I don’t have any other explanation”
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Posted: 16th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
Liverpool’s Nathan Ecclestone Opts For The David Icke Route To Greatness
LIVERPOOL footballer Nathan Ecclestone say the 9/11 attacks were not the work of terrorists.
Those of you you watched BBC 3’s Conspiracy Road Trip may nod, knowingly. The show featured five Brishers were were sent on licence fee money to America and filmed poo-poing the obvious explanations as to why the Twin Towers were hit (see video and reports of happy Islamofascists). Viwers were told that “up to a third of Britons and Americans” doubt the official line. Up to a third? As in “a few”?
Of course, the few are right.
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Posted: 15th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Sunderland’s Steve Bruce And Asamoah Gyan Are Peas In A Gilded Pod
STEVE Bruce, the former Manchester United captain and current manager of Sunderland is upset and disappointed that the club’s £13m record buy Asamoah Gyan has been loaned to Al-Ain, the United Arab Emirates club owned by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Why Gyan moved is debatable. But it may have something to do with his £25,000-week-wages at Sunderland becoming £125,000-a-week in the Emirates.
Said Bruce:
“Since that game at Wembley, all the parasites, as I call them, hover around. People are in his ear constantly trying to engineer a deal for him. Certainly since the England game, when he played at Wembley so well on the night, something has been troubling him. It’s very difficult, the constant speculation no matter what you try to quash or quell, and the people around him, the people who want to make a fast buck, and it affects him in the end… I had a conversation with him two days ago to say, ‘Look, the window as now closed, Asa. Right, we need to see you back playing again and back the way you know you can play’.”
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Can Bolton’s Kevin Davies Explain His Foul On Manchester United’s Tom Cleverley Better Than Kevin Davies?
KEVIN Davies of Bolton Wanderers fouls Tom Cleverley of Manchester United. Clervely is out injured for three or four weeks. Davies’ wife tweets:
“For all the ill-informed haters… Kevin spoke to Tom Cleverley on the phone. He would never intentionally hurt anyone.”
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Posted: 12th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
Grunting Serena Williams’ Intentional Hindrance To Being A Good Sport
SERENA Williams lost the final of tennis’s US Open to Australia’s Sam Stosur.
And she is not a good loser. Good sports do not make great champions. (John McEnroe get the enduring fame for his 1981 tennis brat outburst but if you want to see a real tantrum go to Monica Hingis in the French Open in 1999, when the Swiss Miss cried, argued, served underarm and walked onto her opponent’s side of the court.)
The highlight of what should have been Stosur’s day occurred when Williams hit the ball and before her opponent had had the chance to hit is back yelled “Come on!“. Umpire Eva Asderaki said Williams was guilty of “intentional hindrance” and awarded the point to Stosur.
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Posted: 12th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (3)
Eddie Mitchell Unites Bournemouth Fans With One-Man Pitch Invasion (Video)
TO Bournemouth, where property developer Eddie Mitchell is the chairman of the local football team. AFC Bournemouth, aka The Cherries, have just been tonked 3-0 by the mighty Chesterfield.
Recently, Mitchell went on charm offensive when he told paying fans unhappy at how he is running the club to “go and support Southampton“. When a property developer tells you to move on to another site you might well grow cynical.
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Manchester City Muddle Along Without Poor Garry Cook’s iPad And Pretty Rich Nedum Onuoha
SO. It turns out that Manchester City can survive without Garry Cook, who resigned as chief executive Garry Cook following an email sent from this online address that most of the pundits agree mocked Nedum Onuoha’s mother Dr Anthonia’s cancer.
City write:
“[We] can confirm that there is foundation to Dr Onuoha’s allegations and the chairman has written to apologise to Dr Onuoha for any distress caused.”
Cook, who has maintained that the email was sent by a rogue employee at City, tells the fans:
“I am privileged to have held my position at [City] and to have experienced the opportunities that it has presented. The privilege is in part offset however by the significant personal focus which has at times, detracted from the magnificent achievements of those working at the football club. It is that factor, together with my error of judgement in this matter that has prompted me to reach this decision, which I believe is in the best interests of the football club.”
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Posted: 11th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Manchester City Fans Invited To Wave Inflatable Dolls And Guns At Napoli: Dust Out Godzilla
MANCHESTER City are making ready for their Champions League debut against Napoli by extending an invite to the fans:
Got a flag, banner or something else you like to wave on matchdays? If the answer is yes, the Club is inviting you to bring them along next Wednesday as City take on Napoli.
Anyone see a problem coming?
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Posted: 9th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (3)
International Paralympic Day: David Cameron And Boris Johnson Do Tennis
THURSDAY meant International Paralympic Day in Trafalgar Square, London. Seb Coe, swimmer Ellie Simmonds, South African runner Oscar Pistorius and the British volleyball team were there to do stuff.
Also there were Bullingdon Boys David Cameron and Mayor of London Boris Johnson. They played tennis in smart shiny black shoes, slacks and shirts. Bozza rolled up his sleeves. Cameron kept his tie on. I
It’s hard to imagine Ken Livingstone, the man Johnson beat in the race to be London mayor, playing tennis. Ken is too self-regarding and aware of his credentials as a man who equates misery with gravitas and clear thinking to play ball. When London entered the race for the 20102 Olympics, Livingstone offered:
“We didn’t bid for the Olympic Games because I liked sport. I have never been to a sports event in my life.”
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Former Manchester United Great Paul McGrath Will Now Sing His New Single ‘Goin Back’
FORMER Manchester Untied defender Paul McGrath will now sing Goin’ Back – his news single – in the style of a divorced dad stood on a drab Curracloe beach crooning an off-tune version of the Byrds/Carole King classic as he waits for the AA to come and start his Vauxhall Vectra:
Manchester City’s Garry Cook Is A Victim Of Football’s Cancer: Dr Anthonia Onuoha’s 11 Months Of Pain
MORE on that message sent from Manchester City Chief executive Garry Cook’s email account to Dr Anthonia Onuoha, mother of City defender Nedum Onuoha. The email did the undoable and made light of the woman’s cancer. Dr Onuoha, you will recall, found it necessary to speak of her cancer in an email to City’s football administrator Brian Marwood in the context of negotiations over her son’s role at the club – she also acts as his agent.
She said her body was “ravaged with cancer and ongoing chemotherapy but my intellectual and mental capacities remain fully functional…”
Two weeks later she received this email singed “G”:
“Brian. Ravaged with it!!……I don’t now how you sleep at night. You used to be such a nice man when I worked with you at nike.”
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ITV’s Clive Tyldesley Says Wales And Spurs’ Gareth Bale Always Wins – Even When He Doesn’t
ENGLAND defeat the mighty Wales 1-0 at Wembley. It might have been very different had ITV’s Clive Tyldesley’s version of Spurs and Wales winger Gareth Bale scored. Said the commentator:
“Bale can pretty much win a game on his own, as we saw that night in the San Siro.”
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Ian Wright On Garry Cook And ‘Shambolic’ Manchester City Is The Most Stupid Thing You Will Read This Year
IAN Wright wades into the self-awareness and guile of a Glastonbury camper with diarrhea heading to the portaloo. His article for The Sun is so appalling, so lacking in nous, insight and sensible thought you wonder for his sanity – and that of the paper than continues to employ him. He writes:
I FELT extremely disappointed when I read the story in yesterday’s Sun about the e-mail sent to Nedum Onuoha’s mum from Manchester City. How can anyone possibly think it’s acceptable to joke about someone suffering from cancer?…
Now City have to investigate this disgusting behaviour by a member of their staff and sack whoever wrote that e-mail.
Have to. Wright has spoken. They. Have. To.
They can’t sweep this one under the carpet. Nor can the FA and the Premier League.
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Posted: 6th, September 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comments (29)
Jack Wilshere’ Injury: Daily Mail Twists Fabio Capello’s Words To ‘Hit’ Arsenal
JACK Wilshere is injured. The Arsenal star is out for a few weeks.
The Daily Mail leads with:
“Capello his back on Wilshere”
Fabio Capello has queried Arsenal’s decision to pack Jack Wilshere off on holiday this summer instead of treating his injured ankle…
Asked if he thought Arsenal had made a mistake by sending the midfielder on holiday, Capello said: ‘It’s not my job to say what happened but he suffered (the injury) against Switzerland and then went on holiday for a month.’
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Man City’s Garry Cook’s Email To Anthonia Onuoha Was Sent From His iPad: Do They Work In South Africa?
CAN Garry Cook hang on to his job as Manchester City’s £1.8 million Chief Executive? Haven’t Man City got a spare CE in a storeroom on £1.6m a year they can call upon while Cook nurses an injury. Given the trend of City to buy anything Arsenal, has anyone seen David Dein?
You can read the story of why Cook is in hot water here. But the nuts of it are that 11 months ago an email was sent from his email address account at City to Nedum Onuoha’s cancer-suffering mother which made light of her illness. It was addressed to Cook’s colleague Brian Marwood.
Dr Anthonia Onuoha wrote to City’s football administrator, Brian Marwood. She said her body was “ravaged with cancer and ongoing chemotherapy” but she was still sharp of mind.
Two weeks later she, reportedly, received this:
“Brian. Ravaged with it!!……I don’t now how you sleep at night. You used to be such a nice man when I worked with you at nike.”
That message was signed “G”.
City release a statement:
“Following allegations made to the football club by Dr Anthonia Onuoha, subsequently reported in today’s media, the club can confirm that a board-led review has been launched into the matter.”
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Posted: 6th, September 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (6)
